A day after the Huskies lost 76-42 to Minnesota-Duluth at home, the 6-foot-7 senior forward pumped in 19 points while pulling down a game-high 13 rebounds and adding two assists, a steal and a blocked shot. He was 6 of 10 from the field, including one 3-pointer, and a perfect 6 of 6 at the free-throw line.

Bell was named the Superior National Bank Superior Player of the Game with his first double-double of the season after he had five of them last season.

“Trent just plays hard,” MTU head coach Josh Buettner said in a university sports press release. “He hit a 3 early and then was able to drive to the basket cleanly. He really looked like himself today.”

Bell was an All-Upper Peninsula Dream Team and All-Mid-Peninsula Conference player at Negaunee. He was runner-up for the All-U.P. Class A-B-C Player of the Year award as a senior.

Trent Bell

On Saturday, while Bell made his triple and pulled down eight rebounds in the first half, he scored 10 of his points in the second half, including 5 of 5 on free throws, and also made both assists then.

Owen White scored a game-high 25 points and made 10 of 18 shots with five rebounds and two assists.

In this high-scoring game, Tech’s Eric Carl scored 18 points with four treys. This was Tech’s first time scoring 90 points since a 91-61 win over Northern Michigan University on Feb. 27, 2020.

Trailing 46-39 at halftime, the Huskies outscored St. Cloud 51-30 in the second half.

“I know the character of this team and I knew we were going to bring energy and bounce back after (Saturday),” Buettner said

. “(The St. Cloud State Huskies) were making shots early and that put us back on our heels, but then the second half was just a tremendous effort.

“To hold them to 30 points is a testament to our guys digging in. Good defense is one of our staples.”

Tech opened the second half with a 10-3 scoring run to tie the game 49-49.

Bell’s dunk with 5:29 remaining gave the Huskies a 69-61 lead.

“I know there is a really good team in here,” Buettner said. “We just need to keep getting better where we can. We can’t let not making shots affect the rest of our game.

“We’ll keep working hard in practice to eliminate that and improve but today was a positive step.”

Michigan Tech (3-2) begins GLIAC play on Saturday at Northwood. The Huskies’ next home game is Monday against NMU. That game is expected to be telecast on WLUC-TV6 or Fox-U.P.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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