Michigan Tech guard Marcus Tomashek attempts a jump shot over a Wisconsin-Parkside defender during a game Saturday in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Photo courtesy of Michigan Tech University)

KENOSHA, Wis. — Junior guard Marcus Tomashek dropped 24 second-half points to elevate the No. 21 nationally-ranked Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball team over Wisconsin-Parkside, 71-63 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to win the first outright GLIAC regular season championship since the 2002-03 season.

The Huskies are now 22-6 overall and finished atop the league with a ledger of 17-3. Parkside dropped to 14-14 overall and 11-9 in the GLIAC.

Tomashek, the Green Bay, Wisconsin, native and GLIAC Preseason Player of the Year, finished with a game-high 30 points, his 13th of his career and seventh this season. Redshirt freshman Gabe Smith added a career-high 21 points with 15 coming in the second half, adding three rebounds and an assist in 30 minutes.

“It’s huge to get the title obviously, I don’t think we’ve won the title outright since I was on the team,” said Huskies coach Josh Buettner, “It was really a different game than we’ve been playing and I thought we were getting good looks just couldn’t make some. We got in some different matchups and kept fighting and Gabe kinda took the lid off for us in the second half and for a guy that doesn’t really care about scoring is great to see. Marcus is such a scorer and really helped us get separation down the stretch.”

Three-pointers were at a premium in the opening half as neither team could find rhyme from beyond the arc, as the two teams combined for under 60 points in the opening 20 minutes. Parkside connected on three-of-18 as Michigan Tech went just one-of-11, forcing the two teams to find points elsewhere.

The Huskies controlled the glass, out-rebounding the home team 22-14 and found 20 points from the paint with six points from Smith and Pete Calcaterra, respectively. Parkside earned a 9-2 advantage with Jack Rose putting up five points early for the Rangers. UWP maintained a lead for most of the first half and went into halftime ahead by one following a triple by Josiah Palmer in the final seconds (29-28).

The second half showcased eight ties and three lead changes as the three-point shot from both teams got more consistent. Michigan Tech led for nearly 15 minutes and saw Smith account for the Huskies’ first eight points with a layup and two 3-pointers. Tomashek followed with the next six points with back-to-back triples before getting to the foul line after the media break to push MTU’s lead to five points four and a half minutes into the half.

Rose and Palmer kept the Rangers in the contest in front of a home crowd of over 1,000 fans on Senior Day before Smith scored five-straight for the Huskies off an and-one in the paint and a steal by Nate Abel setting up a fastbreak layup with an assist credited to Ty Fernholz. Then the offense flowed once again through Tomashek, with a five-point spurt of his own off a triple and two free-throws, extending the Huskies lead to eight points (62-54) for the first convincing lead of the game.

Tomashek, as he has done multiple times in the past two seasons, scored the final 11 points for Michigan Tech with a 3-pointer off a steal by Fernholz, giving the Huskies their largest lead of the game (71-60) before free throws by Palmer decided the game at 71-63.

Tomashek and Smith combined for 51 points as the lone Huskies in double-figure scoring. Tomashek and Calcaterra led the way with seven boards.

Palmer led the Rangers with 24 points as Cameron Mallory accounted for a team-high six rebounds.

UP NEXT

The Huskies earned the No. 1 seed in the GLIAC Tournament and will play host to the newest member of the conference, Roosevelt, for the quarterfinals at the SDC Gymnasium on Wednesday, slated for a 6 p.m. tipoff.