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Southfield, Mich – The Lawrence Technological University men’s basketball team hosted Madonna University at home on Wednesday night. A huge shooting performance in the first half helped the Blue Devils get by the Crusaders by a final of 89-80.
Brandon Beavers had a team-high of 21 points connecting on 7-of-13 shooting, grabbing eight boards, to go along with seven assists and four steals. Gunnar Gustafson also pitched in 20 points, and Alek Ivanovic had 17 points on the night.
Gustafson led things off for the Blue Devils with a made layup.
Back-to-back buckets from Ivanovic gave LTU an 11-6 lead.
With 15:10 left in the first half, the team went on a mini 7-0 to extend their lead to eight.
A couple of possessions later, Carter Frantz and Blake Lund nailed back-to-back triples, giving the Blue Devils a 25-10 lead midway through the half.
Madonna was forced to call a timeout after an Andrew Rinn pull-up jumper.
After the timeout, an Ivanovic three and Gustafson layup gave LTU a 16-point cushion.
The Crusaders would then come back down to hit consecutive baskets from Ethan Emerzian, cutting the lead back to 12.
With 2:46 to go, Isaiah Cumberland secured two straight baskets of his own bringing the LTU lead up to 46-25.
Frantz ended the first half with another three to give his team a 49-33 lead heading into the locker room.
The team shot 18-of-32 (56.3%) from the field, 9-of-18 (50.0%) from long range, and 4-of-5 (80.0%) from the line.
LTU got off to a slow start in the opening minutes of the second half, when the Crusaders cut the deficit to 14 points before Coach Pickens called a timeout.
Both teams continued to trade baskets out of the timeout for the next couple of possessions.
With 10:54 left in the game, Beavers was able to find Gustafson slashing to the rim to hammer home a dunk.
Rinn answered back with another bucket next time down for LTU.
Beavers made layup made it 71-53.
Jordan Graham got going late to bring MU back within 13 points with 7:10 to play.
Three minutes later, Gustafson slammed another one that came from Rinn this time.
The Blue Devils were able to sink their free throws in crunch time to secure the victory by a final score of 89-80.
LTU lead for all 40 minutes of action in this one.
Brandon Beavers surpassed the 100-career steals mark tonight after his four steals.
The team shot the ball 30-of-55 (54.5%), 10-of-24 (41.7%) from deep, and 19-of-23 (82.6%) from the free-throw line.
The next Blue Devils (8-4) game is this Saturday, December 11th when they travel to play the Warriors of Indiana Tech. This game will tip off at 3 PM.
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