Upsets Highlights Men's Basketball Semifinals

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - (TOURNAMENT PAGE) - The semifinals of the 2022 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) Tournament certainly held up to the saying of "That's why you play the games." Both of the top seeds in the tournament found themselves on the low end of the final scores as fourth-seeded Lourdes upset top-seeded Indiana Tech 89-79 and third-seeded Madonna upended No. 2-seeded Cornerstone 103-102 in overtime.

Lourdes now travels to Madonna on Feb. 28 for a 7 p.m. tipoff for the tournament championship game.

#4 Lourdes (23-7) def. #1 Indiana Tech (25-7), 89-79
After playing to a 40-40 tie to end the first half, Lourdes jumped to a 14-point lead with just under eight minutes to play. Indiana Tech went on a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to just four points, but Lourdes answered with back-to-back buckets. The Warriors again cut the lead to four points with 3:18 to play, but Lourdes finished with a 10-4 win to secure the upset.
Stat Leaders
Points: Little Anderson 28 (LU); Blake Davidson 20 (IT)
Rebounds: Nick Welch 10 (LU); Rog Stein, Cory McKinney 8 (IT)
Assists: Cory McKinney 5 (IT) Nick Welch, Brett Lauf 4 (LU)

#3 Madonna (21-11) def. #2 Cornerstone (22-10), 103-102 OT
Cornerstone clung to a three-point lead at halftime and neither team could more than a five-point advantage in the second half until Jonny Strube hit a jumper in the paint at the 5:42 mark to put Cornerstone up by seven. The Crusaders chipped away and pulled to within one when Matthew Maclellan completed an old-fashioned three-point play with 3:37 left. After trading baskets for the next three and a half minutes, Mark Mettie sunk what looked to be the game-sealing freethrow with :08 on the clock for a three-point Madonna lead, but Cornerstone had other thoughts. Christian Rodriguez nailed a contested three-pointer as the buzzer sounded to force overtime, the second in the tournament for the Golden Eagles. Cornerstone enjoyed a five-point lead a couple of times in the extra period, only to have MU tie it up at 97 with 1:12 on the clock. CU went down the floor and Drew Knickerbocker grabbed an offensive rebound and Strube came through with a three only to see Noah Campbell hit a shot along with a free throw for a one-point Crusader lead with 15 seconds left. Two seconds later, Rodriguez connected on a pair from the charity stripe for another one-point CU lead at 102-101. Madonna pushed the ball up the court and Campbell made a layup with six seconds left for the win.
Stat Leaders
Points: Noah Campbell 35 (MU); Christian Rodriguez 34 (CU)
Rebounds: Brendan Young 13 (MU); Jack Joldersma 8 (CU)
Assists: Christian Rodriguez 6 (CU); Noah Campbell 4 (MU)