EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Men's Basketball rallied early in the second half, but lost in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional to Michigan Tech University, 81-69, Sunday evening at the Ford Center. USI, the third seed, sees its season end with a 12-5 record after winning eight of its last 10 games, while Michigan Tech, the second seed, continues on to the regional championship game with a 15-7 mark.
 
USI and Michigan Tech traded buckets for the first few minutes of the contest until the Huskies ignited on a 14-2 run to lead by 13-points, 21-8, at the 11:22 mark of the opening half. Michigan Tech would maintain the 13-point advantage for the next nine minutes until USI cut the deficit to nine, 32-23, with 3:44 remaining on the first half clock on a jumper by junior guard Jelani Simmons.
 
The Huskies pushed their advantage back to 13 points twice more and settled for a 38-25 margin at the intermission.
 
USI made a big push to open the second half by exploding on an 11-0 run to close the halftime gap to 38-36. Simmons and senior forward Josh Price combined for all of the points during the run, hitting four-of-six from the field, including a three-point bomb, and two-of-three from the stripe.
 
Michigan Tech, however, put together a 13-2 run of its own to re-extend the margin back to 13 points, 51-38. The Huskies would go to lead by as many as 20 points in the second half (74-54) before closing out the 81-69 victory.
 
In the scoring column, Simmons finished the night with a team-high 23 points for the Eagles. He was nine-of-18 from the field, including a three-pointer in the second half, and four-of-six from the line.
 
USI senior guard Mateo Rivera scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half to follow Simmons and round out the double-digit scorers.