Photo Credit: Michigan Tech

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — The Michigan Tech men’s basketball fell behind early and never caught up in a 75-62 loss at No. 10-ranked St. Cloud State tonight. Tyler Molesworth scored 20 points and Ali Haidar tallied his first career double-double, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Tech Huskies from falling to 1-2 on the year.

Five turnovers in the first five minutes of the game put the Black and Gold at an early disadvantage it could never fully recover from. SCSU built up a double digit lead by the 10:44 mark of the opening half before heading into the break with a 41-28 cushion.

Molesworth was one of the few bright spots for Tech in the opening 20 minutes as he posted 12 points.

St. Cloud opened the second half by scoring the first seven points for a 22-point advantage. Tech had a few opportunities, but never got inside of a 15-point deficit until the final minute.

“St. Cloud really proved why they’re a top-10 team tonight,” said head coach Kevin Luke. “They rushed us on offense and gave us problems. We needed to do a better job executing our game plan than we did, especially to beat them on their floor.”

The final stat sheet revealed big discrepancies in turnovers (Tech-19, SCSU 9) and rebounds (SCSU-30, Tech 25). Shooting percentages were pretty good for both teams as the hosts made 50 percent compared to Tech’s 45 percent.

Molesworth’s first 20-point game at Tech came as he made 4-of-6 3-pointers and 8-of-9 free throws. Haidar registered nearly all (13 points and nine rebounds) of his 15-10 double-double in the second half. Matt Esters was the next-highest scorer for the Huskies at seven points.

Mike Hojnacki, who entered the game averaging 12.5 points, was held to just three.

Michigan Tech will return to action next weekend as it plays in the Southern Indiana Invitational. The Huskies will face the host Screaming Eagles Friday (Nov. 27) at 8:30 p.m.