GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The No. 5-ranked Indiana Tech men's basketball team fell to No. 2-ranked and Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic (WHAC) foe Cornerstone, 83-65, on Saturday afternoon at Mol Arena.
Dylan Phair scored a team-high 17 points while pulling down four rebounds.
Darren Groves added 14 points and four rebounds while
Max Huber chipped in 10 points off the bench.
Joel Wincowski grabbed a team-best seven rebounds in the loss as first-year head coach
Ted Albert lost in his first return to his alma matter.
The defending NAIA Division II National runner-up would come out strong as they opened the game on a 9-2 run and causing the Warriors to call a timeout with just under six minutes gone in the contest. Tech would respond quickly out of the timeout as they used a 10-2 spurt to take the lead with 12:13 left in the first half off a three-pointer from
Mitch Morken.
Cornerstone would quickly recover though, rattling off four straight points to kick-start a 14-2 run for the Golden Eagles to stretch the lead to 11 points with 7:40 to play in the half. Trailing by 11, Tech would start their comeback with a 20-10 run over the next six minutes to pull within a point at 37-36 with 1:01 left in the half and headed into the locker room trailing 39-36.
The Golden Eagles would come out firing in the second half with a 9-3 spurt to extend their lead to nine with 16:30 on the clock. An old-fashioned three-point play from Phair at the 16:07 mark would cut the deficit to six, but the hosts would take command of the game with a 12-4 run to go ahead 60-46 with 11 minutes to go in the game.
Tech would be hampered by cold shooting in the second half, going 11-33 from the field while Cornerstone would hit 57.1% of their shots to extend their lead to as many as 21 points and coming away with the 83-65 win to hand the Warriors their first loss in conference play.
Tech (8-2, 3-1 WHAC) returns to action Wednesday as they return to Grand Rapids for a battle with Aquinas. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. from the Sturrus Sports and Fitness Center.
