Box Score HAMMOND & WESTVILLE, Ind.-- Purdue Northwest Men's Basketball hosted the Michigan Tech Huskies for the second game of a conference double-header on Saturday afternoon. A gritty performance from PNW took them within four points late in the second half, however the Pride could not scoot past the Huskies, dropping a close game 84-77. PNW Head Coach Boomer Roberts felt that execution late in the game led to Saturday's loss.
 
"I really like this group, so it makes it even more difficult to see us continue to fight but fall short," said Roberts. "We struggled with our discipline defensively, and we didn't get stops late."
 
The Black and Gold found themselves on their heels early, trailing by as much as 13 in the first half. Despite two big buckets from beyond the arc from Timothy Gilmore, the Pride still found themselves down 10 heading into the locker room. Jyrus Freels scored 11 points, combining with Gilmore for 19 of Purdue Northwest's 28 points in the first half.
 
PNW came out shooting in the second half with a deep three from Xavier Hallinan as the shot clock expired. As the Pride clawed their way back, Xavier Allison sunk a three, and shortly after, Gilmore hit another three from the corner as he fell out of bounds, cutting the deficit to just five points with 6:40 left in the game. A missed and-one free throw from Barnard was followed by a put-back from Gabe Tombs, who was fouled and converted on the and-one of his own. The hard-nosed play by Tombs closed the gap to just four points with 5:38 left to play.
 
Despite the great effort from the Pride, they could not gain any more ground on the Huskies, eventually falling 84-77. Freels ended with 19 points and Gilmore finished with 18. Anthony Barnard had 18 of his own, 14 of which were in the second half.
 
"Jyro, Anthony, Timmy, and Allison made big plays offensively," continued Roberts. "You win games in the last five minutes with stops, free throws, and execution, and we couldn't get stops tonight. Credit goes to Michigan Tech, who is well coached and played really well together."
 
The Pride will next be in action on Thursday when they welcome the Ashland University Eagles. Tip-off is at 7:00 PM (CT) at John Friend Court in Hammond.