HAMMOND, Ind. – The Purdue Northwest men's basketball team fell 71-63 to Lake Superior State on Thursday afternoon inside the Fitness & Recreation Center.
PNW fell to 6-20 (3-15 GLIAC) on the season following the setback. It was the Pride's second game in less than 24 hours after last night's home win over Northwood. LSSU earned its sixth straight win and improved to 16-7 (11-6 GLIAC).
Logan Phillips (Chandler, Ariz./Valley Christian) led the Pride with 18 points, tying his season high, while going 7 of 12 from the field. The sophomore from Chandler, Ariz. is averaging 17.3 points over the past three outings.
Anthony Irvin (Chandler, Ariz./Corona Del Sol) also reached double figures with 10 points and five rebounds.
HEAD COACH BOOMER ROBERTS:
"We put ourselves in great position to win the game today, even after a quick turnaround from last night. I thought we were really competing. But winning in the GLIAC comes down to finishing. We finished last night but didn't finish today. We had some really bad turnovers and we didn't execute on either end. Tough to overcome our own mistakes, and they capitalized."
How it happened: PNW used a 13-3 scoring run midway through the second half to build a 59-53 lead, but the visiting Lakers outscored the Pride 18-4 the rest of the way.
PNW finished the game with a 1-for-9 shooting mark from the field while trying to match the Lakers. The Pride also fell victim to its second-highest turnover total of the season with 21, which proved costly in a tight contest where neither team led by double digits until the visitors pulled ahead near the end.
Kai Steinman's (Champaign, Ill./Ben Davis) 3-pointer at the 10:26 mark put the Pride ahead 51-50 for their first lead since the opening minute of the second half. A pair of buckets from
Jyrus Freels (Evansville, Ind./Francis Joseph Reitz) and
Caleb Zurliene (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) gave PNW its six-point lead with under seven minutes left, and the Pride seemed to have all the momentum.
But, LSSU's Tyson Edmondson drained back-to-back threes to tie the game and the Lakers never trailed again.
Anthony Barnard's (Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo) free throws with just over three minutes left cut the deficit to two, 63-61, but that was as close as the Pride would get.
Kemon Bassett powered the Lakers with 18 points and 13 rebounds off the bench. Malek Adams produced 13 points and five assists, while Edmondson made 4 of 5 three-point attempts for 12 points.
UP NEXT
PNW will play the home finale at the FNRC against Ferris State at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Bulldogs are ranked 19th in this week's national DII media poll and 20th in the coaches' poll.
FOLLOW THE PRIDE
For all the latest information on Purdue Northwest Men's Basketball, please visit PNWathletics.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Pride (@pnwathletics & @PNWBasketball) on Twitter. You can also find the Pride on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
