David Archambeau/For the Gazette Michigan Tech’s Trent Bell extends an arm in an attempt to defend against Ferris State’s Walt Kelser during a game Saturday at the SDC Gym in Houghton.
HOUGHTON — Struggling to cross 35-percent shooting all afternoon, Michigan Tech men’s basketball fell to No. 20 Ferris State 71-48 at SDC Gymnasium Saturday in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matchup. The Bulldogs dominated the glass with 40 rebounds and used a 38-21 first half advantage to halt the Huskies’ four-game win streak. Vejas Grazulis led the Bulldogs with 15 points and five FSU players reached doubles figures. Ferris State shot 47.4-percent (27-for-57) overall and supplemented their scoring with help from the bench.
“All the credit in the world to Ferris,” said head coach Josh Buettner. “They are really good, which we knew coming in. We had one bad stretch in the first half where they made a run on us to get separation. I thought we were better in the second half and really guarded them well. We just had too many point-blank missed layups today. Some of them were contested but they just didn’t fall. Plus we didn’t make threes. You’re just not going to win against a good team when that happens.”
Despite the loss, the Huskies had a few flashes of brilliance. Adam Hobson his recent uptick in scoring with 16 points on 6 of 12 shooting, including four 3-pointers. Tyler Robarge also posted six points off the bench and Trent Bell grabbed eight rebounds. Owen White was effective at times with 14 points, five rebounds, and a pair of steals.
Early shooting woes doomed Michigan Tech as the team connected on just four of their first 17 attempts at the basket. Hobson made back-to-back threes to get the Huskies back to a 20-point gap with 3:13 to play in the first half but the Bulldogs spread the ball around to eight different scorers to keep the pressure on and scored 12 second-chance points and 26 points in the paint. Ethan Erickson provided an outside threat and finished 3-for-4 from downtown for 11 points for FSU.
“Ferris is a team that can expose all your weaknesses,” Buettner said. “Make one mistake and it changes the complexion of the game. Credit to their freshman Ethan Erickson. He split open the game Thursday against Northern Michigan and then did the same thing to us. We watched the video on him but still couldn’t stop it.”
Michigan Tech (6-3, 3-1 GLIAC) went 22.7-percent (5-for-22) from beyond the arc and 34.5-percent (19-for-55) overall. Each team committed 13 turnovers and passed 13 assists. The Huskies nabbed seven steals and 28 rebounds.
MTU moved to 2-1 on their current eight-game homestand. They are in the midst of four games in nine days with Finlandia University up next on Wednesday, Dec. 15.
Ferris State (9-1, 4-0 GLIAC) kept first place in the GLIAC North Division standings and extended their win streak to five. The Bulldogs play at Lewis University on Monday, Dec. 20.