FORT WAYNE, Ind.--Junior
Cameron McEvans drilled a contested right-corner three-pointer with 1.9 seconds left to lift fifth-seeded Lawrence Tech over No. 4 seed Indiana Tech, 66-65, in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament quarterfinals at the Schaefer Center on Thursday evening.
The Blue Devils (20-9) capture their first 20-win season since Coach George Verdonckt led the 1960-61 squad to a 21-6 overall mark, and will now face nationally No. 14-ranked and top seed Madonna--a 72-60 winner against eighth-seed Siena Heights in another quarterfinal matchup--in the WHAC Semifinals on Saturday (time to be determined).
McEvans finished with 14 points off the bench, but no bigger than the game-winning trey in front of his bench. On the ensuing in-bounds play from the baseline, Indiana Tech tried a desperation half-court shot that fell well short.
Senior
Alejandro Gonzalez tied McEvans for the LTU scoring lead with 14 points, followed by junior
Aaron Dolny with 12 and senior
Nathaniel Ward, 10. Senior
Brandon Beavers (5 points), who went over the 2,000-point scoring plateau in his NAIA career that includes a season at Shawnee State University, had a game-best nine rebounds to go along with four assists. Ward dished a game-high eight assists for a personal record.
Lucas Lyyski led the Warriors (18-11 overall) with game highs of 15 points (7-10 FGs), nine rebounds and four blocked shots. Steve Helm added 12 points and Crew Gibson scored 10. Javel Lewis (9 points) also had nine rebounds.
A pair of Gonzalez treys on both wings with 124 seconds to go in the first half gave LTU its biggest lead, 36-30. The Blue Devils led 36-32 at the intermission.
Indiana Tech began the second half on a 9-2 run to take a 41-38 advantage with 17 minutes and 28 seconds remaining.
The teams continued to trade baskets as LTU went up by four points a few times, 45-41 (14:56), 49-45 (12:45) and 52-48 (11:47) on treys by junior
Blake Lund, Beavers and McEvans, respectively.
Indiana Tech matched its biggest lead of three points, 56-53, in the second half at the 8:34 mark on a layup by Lyyski. The Warriors' last lead, 65-63, occurred with 17 seconds to go when Lyyski's putback came after two offensive rebounds.
The game was as close as the final margin indicated by seven ties and 16 lead changes. Neither team led by more than six points.
Lawrence Tech won a season series (2-1) from Indiana Tech for the first time in program history, defeating the Warriors on their homecourt for the first time ever. Indiana Tech leads the all-time series 22-2.
