SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – The Madonna Crusaders men's basketball team (18-9, 14-5 WHAC) were on the road today in what would be their final regular season game against the Lawrence Tech Blue Devils (15-11, 13-6 WHAC). The Crusaders would fall 111-100 in what would be an offensively charged matchup, moving to 18-10 overall and 14-6 in the WHAC.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

With the Crusaders sitting fourth in the conference standings with the Blue Devils right below them in fifth, it would be a high-stakes matchup between these two conference rivals, both fighting for home court advantage in the opening round of the WHAC Tournament.

The game would start out as expected, back and forth with high energy, both sides bringing the heat from the field. It would be a game of 1v1 battles, each side matching up early on and trading points back and forth. Ahmoni Weston would be 4-for-4 from three-point range just over 10 minutes in and would end the half with 17 points. Fellow senior Isaac Anderson closed out his own explosive first half with 12 points. Both teams would put up impressive offensive efforts in the first half, the Crusaders leading the Blue Devils 57-54 at its end.

The game showed no signs of slowing down in the second, Matthew McLellan coming out and completing two dunks back-to-back to score points for the Crusaders. The Blue Devils would respond, securing the lead in the second and pushing late to increase the margin to 10 with five minutes left in the contest. It would come down to dying minutes, but the Crusaders would be unable to close the gap, the Devils coming out on top 111-100.

Five Crusaders would end their night capturing double digits, this supercharged game a preview for the playoff game to come with the Blue Devils claiming home-court advantage after their win.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

● Weston would capture 25 points
● Anderson ended his night with 24 points
● Brendan Young had 18 points and eight rebounds


UP NEXT:

The Crusaders will be back in action on Thursday, February 27th as they will travel back to Southfield, Michigan for a rematch with Lawrence Tech in the first round of the WHAC Tournament. Tip-off is TBA. 


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