NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Indiana Tech men's basketball team suffered their first loss in over a month Saturday afternoon inside McKenna Arena as they fell to Holy Cross College, 74-68.
Rog Stein led both teams with a game-high 20 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.
Cory McKinney had 18 points, four assists and three rebounds while
Josh Kline had 12 points and nine rebounds.
Jeremy Davison chipped in nine points, two rebounds and two steals off the bench.
In a rematch of their contest from the 2020 NAIA Division II National Championship in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the two teams combined for 12 ties and 10 lead changes in a back-and-forth game. The Warriors shot 53.4% from the floor in their first game in 10 games while the Saints were playing just their second game of the season and shot 45.9% over 40 minutes. The hosts got out to a 14-6 lead with just over six minutes gone in the contest, but a triple from
Jeremy Luciani started a 10-2 run to knot the game up at 16 with 10:14 to play in the opening half. Back-to-back baskets from Davison along with a jumper from Luciani put Tech ahead 26-21 and causing the Saints to call a timeout with 6:29 on the clock. Holy Cross came back with a 7-0 run and a 3:19 scoring drought from the Warriors to go back up 28-26 at the 3:26 mark, but the visitors would end the half with a 32-31 lead thanks to a Davison basket in the closing seconds of the period.
Knotted up at 40 with 15:33 to play in the game, the Warriors went on a 12-4 run to go up by eight points, their largest lead of the game, with 10:41 to play, that was spurred on by a 3:50 scoring drought. Holy Cross cut the deficit down to two points at the 7:06 mark, but Tech pushed the lead back up to seven points with 5:59 left on the clock. Holy Cross caught fire late though, using a 15-4 run over the three minutes of the game, along with holding Tech to just two baskets over the final 4:10 of the contest, to pull away from the Warriors and snatch a 74-68 victory.
Tech (6-3) returns to action on Monday, Dec. 14 as they make the short trip across Fort Wayne to take on the University of Saint Francis for the second time this season. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. from the Hutzell Athletic Center.
