Photo courtesy of Michigan Tech University Michigan Tech guard works to keep the ball away from a Purdue Northwest defender during a game Thursday at the John Friend Court in Hammond, Indiana.

HAMMOND, Ind. — The No. 21 nationally-ranked Michigan Tech Huskies men’s basketball squad earned a share of the GLIAC regular season title with a 78-56 handling of Purdue Northwest at the John Friend Court on Thursday evening.

Michigan Tech has won six straight for an overall record of 21-6 and 16-3 in the GLIAC. Purdue Northwest falters to 6-21 overall and 3-16 in the loop.

“Our group was pretty locked in and Purdue Northwest is a good basketball team, that’s not a 10th-place team, we had to play one of our better games to get there–we shot the lights out and had to work for everything,” said Huskies coach Josh Buettner. “I’m really proud of the effort the guys put forward and to clinch a share of the championship you want to do it that way and I’m really happy with the win and effort of our guys.”

Michigan Tech opened the game knocking down its first three shots from long range, leading from the jump with two triples from Marcus Tomashek sandwiched between a trey by Josh Terrian in the opening minutes. The Huskies were ahead 13-4 before the Pride strung together a 7-0 run and kept it a one-possession game until the halfway mark of the opening half.

Ty Fernholz came off the bench and scored five-straight points for the Black & Gold with a jumper and a 3-pointer to give Michigan Tech its largest lead of the game (31-20) with 4:40 to play in the opening stanza. Adam Hobson added a triple of his own as Matt Schmainda hit a layup with 1:44 to play, concluding the scoring from the away team, seeing the Huskies head into halftime ahead 36-28 after going seven-of-14 from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.

The Huskies improved the shooting numbers in the second half, pouring in 42 points on 51.9 percent from the field (14-27) and 43.8 percent from deep, once again connecting on seven 3-pointers (7-16), all while holding the Pride to the same amount of points in the opening 20 minutes, 28.

It wasn’t as easy as it sounds as Purdue Northwest played the Huskies tough, cutting the Black and Gold’s lead to four points three times from the 13:48 mark to the 11:42 mark with a four-point play and an alley-oop dunk, seemingly bringing momentum to the home team.

However, the Huskies shot their way out of reach, with Fernholz producing four 3-pointers for the Black & Gold starting at the 9:24 mark. He hit two 3-pointers sandwiched between a layup by Gabe Smith to quickly push Michigan Tech ahead by 11 points in just over a minute’s time.

The Pride, who only took 11 3-pointers for the game, couldn’t keep pace with the Huskies down the stretch, getting to the lane or settling for tough midrange jumpers. Tomashek had an and-one and two free throws with under five minutes to play and Hobson scored the final shot, a 3-pointer to decide the game at 78-56.

Tomashek finished with a game-high 20 points as Fernholz was close behind with 19. Nate Abel led the team with seven rebounds, as Terrian added seven points and a team-leading five assists. Hobson finished with 11 points, six rebounds and two steals off the bench.

Will Ashford had 12 points to lead the way as Quinton McCullough finished with a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

UP NEXT

The Huskies have a chance to win the GLIAC regular season title, completing the regular season with a Saturday tilt at Parkside, slated for a 4 p.m. tipoff.