SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The No. 24-ranked Indiana Tech men's basketball team saw their season come to a close Wednesday morning inside the Sanford Pentagon for the third straight season as they fell to No. 10-ranked Holy Cross College, 60-56, in the first round of the 2020 NAIA Division II National Championship, presented by Athletic Care.
Cory McKinney had a team-best 13 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists.
Dilyn Good knocked down four three-pointers to add 12 points while
Max Huber poured in 10 points, five rebounds and two steals.
Mitch Morken chipped in six points, five rebounds, three steals and three assists.
Holy Cross, who was making their first-ever NAIA National Championship appearance as the regular season co-champions of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference, got out to an 8-3 heading into the first media timeout. A bucket from
Jeremy Luciani and triple from Huber gave Tech their first lead of the game with 12:04 left in the first half at 10-8, but the Saints came back with a 7-0 run to go back up 15-10 at the 9:37 mark.
A triple from
Jeremy Davison started an 11-0 run for the Orange and Black that was powered by back-to-back triples from Good, to put them up 21-15 and forced Holy Cross to take a timeout at the 6:37 mark. Tech pushed its lead up to 24-17 following another three from Good and held a 27-24 lead at the end of the half.
The Saints started to find their rhythm on the offensive end in the second half as they went 13-28 (46.4%) from the floor and knocking down six triples in the final 20 minutes of the game while holding Tech to just 27.8% shooting and just 21.4% from downtown. A back-and-forth first few minutes saw the opening game of the 29
th, and final, edition of the NAIA DII National Championship locked up at 31 with 15:13 to play.
A 14-2 run from Holy Cross gave them a 45-35 lead with 10:30 to go and put the momentum on their side while they continued to lock down the Warriors on the defensive end of the court as they allowed just seven points to Tech over the next five minutes. A bucker from Lehrman ended a two and a half minute scoring drought for the Orange and Black with 5:24 to go, but the Warriors faced a 58-47 deficit with 2:19 to go. The Warriors found some energy to go on an 8-0 run and make it a 58-55 game with 47 seconds left on the clock. Tech was unable to close the gap though and the Saints held on to win their first-ever national tournament game.
Tech finishes the season with a 21-12 record.
