Feb 23 - The TIU men's basketball team made a strong statement that they were not ready for their season to end with a commanding 90-67 victory over Calumet St. Joseph's in Hammond, IN.

The Trojans men jumped out to an early lead thanks to a 14-2 run that started with the game tied at 6-6 and ended with TIU in the lead 20-8.  Damien Cole exploded for 16 first half points, scoring 10 of his team's first 16.  "Damien came through with the game of his career to push us way out in front," said Andy Euler, in his first year as head coach at TIU.  Patrick Atkins added 12 first half points and 4 steals.

Though it seemed that Calumet would make a run with a mini 5 point surge, TIU's Danny Kirst would come out of a timeout to quickly bury a deep 3 pointer to start a run that ended with a 41-24 Trojan halftime lead.

The second half started much the way the first ended, with Atkins starting with 4 quick points and Jason Kofroth jumped in the mix with 4 of his 8 in the first 2 minutes.  TIU built up their biggest lead of the game at 54-30 with just under 13 minutes to go.  The Crimson Wave would mount a small charge cutting the lead to 15, mainly behind the 2nd half effort of freshman guard Karl Anderson (18 points, 8 rebounds).

TIU then went on a 5-0 run to push the lead back to 20.  It would hover around that mark for several minutes.  At the 6:09 mark Calumet charged forward again on a two pointer by Anderson and a 3 point basket by freshman CJ Montgomery.  The lead was cut to 14 with 3:24 remaining. 

But Cole (28 points) closed the door with a dunk and the Trojans pulled away to a 20 point lead with less than two minutes to go and finished the contest ahead 90-67.  With the win, the Trojans improve to 6-22 and will face Cardinal Stritch in the CCAC semi final on Wednesday, February 25 in Milwaukee at 7 PM.