Feb. 27, 2008

SAULT STE. MARIE - Lake Superior State men's basketball coach Steve Hettinga won't have to spend as much time as usual scouting his upcoming opponent.

For the second time in a week, LSSU will travel to Houghton to play Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech. After beating the Huskies 59-57 on Monday, the Lakers earned their first berth in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament since 2002. LSSU and MTU, who are 1-1 against each other this season, meet again at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Michigan Tech Student Development Center.

"It will be the same for both teams," Hettinga said. "We know what each other likes to do. The familiarity will be there. At this time of year, you try to excel at what you excel at. We have a tremendous amount of respect for their program. We were fortunate to win Monday, and it will take an even better effort to win there again."

Michigan Tech is 13-13 overall and 8-10 in the GLIAC, while Lake Superior State is 11-15 overall and 8-10 in the GLIAC. MTU earned the No. 2 seed in the GLIAC North Division and home-court advantage based on league tie-breaker rules. Other quarterfinal matchups include (wildcard 2) Hilldale at (1-North) Grand Valley State, (3-South) Mercyhurst at (2-South) Findlay, and (wildcard 1) Ashland at (1-South) Gannon.

Michigan Tech shot 30-of-56 from the field (53.6 percent) on its way to beating LSSU handily, 83-71, in Sault Ste. Marie on Feb. 2. Lake Superior State took advantage of 15 MTU turnovers and limited the Huskies to 21-of-40 shooting from the field to win the rematch in Houghton.

"I felt as if we played much better defense and did a great job rebounding the basketball," said Hettinga, whose team matched MTU on the boards Monday after getting out-rebounded 48-33 earlier in the season. "We also forced more turnovers than we did in the first game and gave ourselves more opportunities that way. We had five extra possessions on turnovers alone. In a one-possession game, that makes a difference."

LSSU and MTU are neck-and-neck in several statistical categories. Against GLIAC competition, the Huskies have been stronger defensively, allowing only 66.8 points per game compared to the Lakers' 74.8 ppg. Lake Superior State has had the advantage in field-goal percentage, especially from three-point range. When playing each other, one game was high-scoring and the other was low-scoring. And, ironically, LSSU was out-scored 27-15 from three-point range in the game it won.

Lake Superior State is 5-1 in its last six games. Its recent run includes consecutive road victories over Ferris State, Northern Michigan and MTU. The Lakers were 0-9 on the road heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

"We have proved we can go on the road and win in a hostile environment and in must-win situations," Hettinga said. "We have definitely grown a lot during the past two weeks. We know we have to play even better on Saturday. It will be a tough, tough battle. I do like our matchups, and I do like the confidence we've built winning the last four games. We have to keep building on what we've been doing. We're in for an absolute war."

Notes: Saturday's game will be broadcast live on WSOO 1230 AM and simulcast on www.lssulakers.com...The LSSU men's basketball team has made three previous GLIAC Tournament appearances ('96, '01, '02) and has a record of 3-2. The Lakers won the tournament title in 1996 with a 106-102 victory over Oakland University.