WORTHINGTON -- A strong defensive effort by visiting Madison Area Tech (Madison, Wis.) was too much for the Minnesota West Bluejays to overcome Friday night in an opening round game of the Sanford Regional Worthington Basketball Classic.
Leading throughout the game, the Wolfpack broke from a narrow 49-43 lead with 10:06 left in the game to a final 75-57 victory.
The Bluejays (1-1) kept the contest close most of the way, but several late-game turnovers were converted into breakaway baskets by the Wolfpack, who put a total of 11 players in the scoring column.
"Tech is a very good defensive team and they played hard, taking us out of our offensive rhythm," said MW head coach Justin Heckenlaible. "We did not take care of the ball very well either, which hurt us down the stretch."
After Tech -- aided by a trio of 3-pointers, from three different players -- burst out a quick 15-5 lead, the rest of the first half was played evenly, as West battled back to within two points, trailing 22-20 with 5:03 left in the half.
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That MW 15-7 run was capped by a nifty 3-pointer by Alexandros Papageorgiou (freshman, Minneapolis), which forced a Tech timeout.
"Things were going good during that run," said Heckenlaible. "Our ball movement was good and we running the floor."
But Tech finished the half on a 13-4 surge of their own -- highlighted by the 3-point shooting of 6-5 sophomore Bobby Komorowski -- to make a 35-24 halftime cushion.
The spread stayed the same for much of the second half, before the Bluejays rallied from a 43-32 deficit with an 11-6 run that closed the gap to 49-43.
A dandy assist from Anthony Tomscha to Cory Lesnar that cut the margin to 47-40 at the 12:27 mark, highlighted that run by MW.
Tech, however, finished in dominating fashion, stretching the lead to as much as 71-49 with 3:19 to play.
Slam dunks by Tech's Courtney Brown (off a steal from midcourt) and by Rex Miller (on a slash cut down the lane, assist Antowan Epps), highlighted the late-game Wolfpack surge.
Tech plays Riverland at 2 p.m. today, while the Bluejays tangle with Hibbing at 6 p.m.
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Tech 35 40 -- 77
MW 24 33 -- 57
Tech (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Komorowski 3-2-6-19, Frank 0-6-4-16, Epps 1-1-1-6, Brown 0-3-0-6, Mandii 0-3-0-6, Nillissen 1-0-2-5, Wilkinson 1-1-0-5, Montrell Hawthorne 0-1-2-4, Miller 0-2-0-4, Barthels 0-2-0-4. Totals 18-42-15-77
West (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Lesnar 0-2-8-12, Akoi 1-2-4-11, VanDuyn 0-3-1-7, Metz 0-2-2-6, Bolton 1-0-3-6, Jarmer 0-1-3-5, Tomscha 0-0-1-1. TOTALS 4-11-23-57.
