FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The Indiana Tech men's basketball team made sure to begin 2022 off on the right track with a defeat of Madonna by a final score of 79-76 on Saturday afternoon at the Schaefer Center.

Max Perez was the leading scorer for the Warriors, the sophomore from Grand Rapids finished with 14 points, knocking down four triples in the contest. Josh Kline was right behind him, finishing with 13 points to go along with eight rebounds. Grant Smith recorded his fourth double-double of the season, notching 12 points and 12 boards. Lucas Lehrman had an excellent game off the bench. scoring 12 points, snagging seven rebounds, and swatting three Crusader shots. Cory McKinney was dishing buckets left and right, as he recorded a game-high seven assists to go along with his eight points. 

Two major keys in the Warrior win were 2nd chance points and bench points. Coach Albert clearly put an emphasis on crashing the offensive glass, and it showed as Tech grabbed those boards and scored on those chances, out-scoring Madonna, 15-4 in the category. Tech also saw some very solid contributions from the bench, out-scoring Madonna 36-17 in that category. Perez, Lehrman, Blake Davidson, and Jeremy Luciani all put in very meaningful minutes off the pine.

The Warriors (13-6, 7-2 WHAC) will be back in action on Wednesday night at they will travel to Adrian, Michigan to take on Siena Heights (5-12, 2-7 WHAC) in conference action. Tip-off is set for 8:00 PM at Siena Heights Fieldhouse.