MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Milwaukee Area Technical College men's basketball team nearly erased a 26-point second-half deficit before falling just short against No. 18 ranked Bryant & Stratton on Tuesday during its Black History Month Game.

Down 69-43 with 17:23 remaining in the second half, the Stormers' chances of securing a come-from-behind victory looked bleak. However, that suddenly changed midway through the final half when MATC mustered a 19-4 run over a seven minute stretch that left them to cut its deficit to 83-73 with 6:34 remaining.

Over the next couple of minutes the Stormers were able to trim the Bobcats' lead to one possession, trailing 91-88 – with 1:13 left in the contest. On the verge of a monumental comeback, MATC's offense went completely cold, going 0-for-3 from deep with a pair of turnovers, which allowed Bryant & Stratton to claim a 98-88 road victory.

"That's the one thing about this team throughout this season is that we continue to make runs like tonight, but we end up doing dumb stuff down the stretch to shoot ourselves in the foot," MATC men's basketball coach Randy Casey said of his team's play over the final minute.

As a result of coming up just a tad short, the Stormers snapped their three-game win streak and moved to 11-15 overall and 5-3 at home on the season.

"We finally decided to fight and play hard," Casey said. "The game was physical, that's the way the officials were calling the game, and we just didn't match it in the first half. We probably didn't match it in those first five minutes of the second half either, but then we decided to play with physicality and heart. It shows what we are capable of and we've shown it at different points of the year, but just not long enough. The game is 40 minutes long, we can't show it for just 10 [minutes]."

The unfortunate end to what had all the makings of a monumental comeback can be attributed to the lackluster stretch the Stormers had over the final 10 minutes before halftime. Trailing 27-21 following a made jumper by sophomore Matthew Hoarde, the Stormers were held to just five made baskets over the remainder of the half. The offensive struggles afforded Bryant & Stratton to end the half on a 32-15 run that saw them take a commanding 59-36 lead at the break.

Over the course of the first half, the Stormers had 11 turnovers and were outscored 34-8 in the paint. They allowed the Bobcats to shoot a staggering 60.5 percent (23-of-38) from the field while connecting on six of their 12 3-point attempts. In comparison, MATC shot just 42.4 percent in the first half on 33 attempts.

"My opinion is that we just felt sorry for ourselves," Casey said of his team's performance over the final 10 minutes in the first half. "Instead of doing something about it, we just felt sorry for ourselves for 10 minutes and you can't do that. It'll cost you."

Despite the loss, the Stormers got a huge boost from Hoarde. The second-year guard scored 19 of his team-high 23 points on the evening during the second half alone on 60 percent shooting (6-for-10) from the field. Hoarde's performance in the second half was the main catalyst in the Stormers' ability to spark a comeback.

"Hoarde has those capabilities," Casey said. "Sometimes when he's got things going on offense, we tend to lose him on the defensive end…he got some stops defensively and got some rebounds so he can do things on both ends, it's just some times he's laser focused on the offensive end."

STAT BOOK
Hoarde paced the Stormers with 23 points, six rebounds, one steal and one assist. Freshman Noah Daniels added 17 points (4-of-7 on 3's), five rebounds, two blocks, two assists and one steal. Sophomore Antonio Foxwell recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore Cyrus Little had nine points, six rebounds, two assists and one block.

UP NEXT
MATC (11-15) will travel to Moraine Valley at 3 p.m. Saturday.