David Archambeau/For the Gazette Michigan Tech forward Dawson Nordgaard attempts a layup against Northern Michigan in a GLIAC semifinal match Saturday at the SDC Gym in Houghton.

HOUGHTON — Despite falling at home in the GLIAC semifinals to their rivals from 100 miles away, the Northern Michigan Wildcats, the Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team qualified for the NCAA Tournament. They are going to play in the Midwest Region as the No. 3 seed.

The one issue, they have to face the Wildcats again, who are the No. 6 seed in the Midwest after they won the GLIAC Tournament by defeating the Lake Superior State Lakers.

The Huskies fell to 13-1 at home on the season after falling behind last Saturday, 33-25 after the first half. They fought all the way back, but could not come up with one more basket late.

“For one, I was really happy,” said Huskies coach Josh Buettner. “That was a great atmosphere. Really happy that the community came out and made it a really cool experience. The band was great, the football team and the students were great.

“As much as I’m not happy with how we played, I think it was probably a pretty entertaining game to watch. Obviously getting way down, coming back, taking the lead, last two minutes, just going back and forth on who was going to make the big plays.”

Buettner felt that the Huskies (23-7 overall) had one of their worst games of the season with the loss.

“Offensively, it was probably our worst shooting game of the year in that gym,” he said. “Obviously. Marcus(Tomashek) going 0-of-11 from three on that side of the ball, we didn’t make shots. There were a few things we didn’t execute great. We always say, you should be able to score 70 in your own gym. If we would have scored 70 in our own gym, (we) win the game.

To make matters worse, as the Huskies missed shots on offense, they also missed things defensively.

“The disappointing part was the defensive part, and some of it was mental, some of it was physical, some of it was the competitive stuff,” Buettner said. “That’s the side where, especially with the starting group, the most confidence I have going into every game is usually those guys on that side of the ball.

“It was the worst performance we’ve had in a long time, if not the whole year, defensively. The good thing about that is hopefully that’s more correctable than making shots.”

Buettner was also quick to point out that the Wildcats came in with an effective game plan.

“Credit to Northern, they played a really good game,” he said. “Defensively, they switched some things up. Offensively, they did attack some of our…by defensive rating, I think we have the best defense in the region, and they found a couple places to attack, they kept hitting it home, and our guys didn’t adjust.”

Buettner admits that he hopes that his team has worked through the issues that plagued them on Saturday.

“When something goes wrong like that, you have to hope things happen for a reason,” he said. “To put it that way, I don’t ever want to say a loss is good, but we had won eight in a row. We had a lot of success, and it’ll be an easier answer to (say) that if we win Saturday, then I’ll be much more OK with this loss, and say, ‘Yes, we needed that loss to regroup us,’ if we play well.

“Losing a game like that is all about how you respond. So, if we respond the way I hope we will, and think we will, the way we should, then maybe it will be.”

The Huskies struggled to contain Dylan Kuehl, who scored 26 points in the game.

“For one, he’s a really good player,” Buettner said. “He’s a three-time all-conference. He stepped up. He made shots. He did what an upperclassman needs to do to win a game like that. We didn’t take away the space enough. I think, schematically, some of the things we were doing were OK, but we gave him a little bit too much of a cushion so that when he came and he gave us that blow, he got too close to the rim, where we need to meet and have that collision be a little bit further out.

“The shots he makes are tough, and he’s going to be able to jump and shoot over a lot of our guys. The further out we can get that from the basket, hopefully the percentages go down. Honestly, we have avoid a couple of fouls. There’s a couple that we were too handsy and put them on the line, giving them a couple easy looks.”

One player the Huskies need to rely on to keep Kuehl in check is junior forward Dawson Nordgaard, who only played 12 minutes Saturday.

“He’s got to be the aggressor,” said Buettner. “He got pushed out to 18 feet. Our game plan was to go into him a ton in the first half, and we couldn’t give him the ball. A couple of (times) it’s the passes, but a lot of it’s him getting shoved out of the position. He’s got to be more aggressive and he’s got to want it down there. He’s a huge x-factor for us.

“We wanted to play inside out a little bit more and not have as much Marcus usage, especially in the first half, and we weren’t able to get it inside. It started on the first play of the game. We threw it in there, and he didn’t keep Kuehl on his back. He’s got to be aggressive, and he’s got to want it.

“If he does that, we’re going to have a great chance.”

At the same time, Buettner admits that while Tomashek, who was named GLIAC Player of the Year, can be a difference maker every time he is on the court, the Huskies need to be able to stay balanced in their attack.

“That’s a flow of the game thing,” said Buettner, about managing Tomashek’s minutes. “Hopefully we get out there, guys are making shots, and we can get it inside and do all that. That’s typically how things go. But, he’s the best advantage creator in probably in Division II. So, if we’re having a hard time creating advantages, or other guys aren’t, we’re going to have to use Marcus a lot. That’s what it is.

“That’s kind of been the recipe of what’s made us successful most of the year. You can go all the way back to when our season kind of changed at (MSU-)Moorhead. We defended our butts off, and Marcus kind of led the way offensively. So, as much as we’ve shown that we can be balanced, especially in the last month, when Marcus hasn’t been as efficient usage, there’s still the way this team was kind of constructed from the start, a little bit the other way, so the game could go multiple ways. Marcus comes out, hits a bunch of threes, (and) it’s going to open things up for everybody. We get the ball inside, have some success, and get it moving, or we get out and run, all those different things can happen. We just have to be ready for all those situations.”

SCOUTING THE

WILDCATS

The Wildcats come into Saturday’s match 22-9 overall after winning the GLIAC Tournament by defeating Michigan Tec, 69-68, last Saturday, and following that up with a 78-63 win over the Lakers on Sunday to punch their ticket to the Midwest Regional.

They are led by junior forward Dylan Kuehl, who averages 16.2 points per game and 6.7 rebounds. Fifth-year guard Julien Smith has also been very good, averaging 10.2 points per game.

They also feature three more who are close in junior forward Sam Privet (9.9 points per game), senior guard Gerald Gittens Jr. (8.9) and junior forward Jackson Dudek (8.8).

“Obviously, I’d like to say we make a couple more shots, and do some of that, but the No. 1 thing is going to be we have to defend better,” Buettner said. “We have to be more locked in. They have some players that are going to make some shots. They have some players that are going to make some plays. I’m not talking about stopping that. I’m saying we need to be locked in on every coverage. All the mental aspects have to be sharper than they were on Saturday.”

GAME TIME

The Huskies and Wildcats will tip off for the fourth time this season Saturday at 1 p.m. in Springfield, Illinois.