D.J. Bridges led MU with 24 points in a WHAC tournament loss to Indiana Tech on Saturday.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Madonna men’s basketball team could not overcome hot shooting from the Warriors of Indiana Tech and fell 70-67 in the 2008 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Tournament semi-finals on Saturday. The loss ends the most successful season in Madonna history as the Crusaders wrap up 2007-08 at 19-13 overall.

The two sides traded early scores and the Crusaders grabbed their only lead of the day at 9-7 on a Charlie Henry (Canton, Mich.) jumper with 16:03 left in the opening half. From there the Warriors tied the game and then went on a run of their own to take an eight point lead at 22-14 with 8:25 left.

Tech held onto the lead, by the slimmest of margins, allowing Madonna to cut it to just one on a Bryant Slaughter (Westland, Mich.) jumper to make it 25-24 but IIT bounced right back, taking the lead back up to eight at 38-30 heading into the halftime intermission.

Madonna made a run to open the second half, cutting the Tech lead to just a bucket at 38-36 on a D.J. Bridges (Canton, Mich.) triple, but Tech then went on a 12-1 run over the next 4:48 to push its cushion to 14 at 51-37.

The Warriors got the lead up to 15 twice before the Crusaders made it interesting. MU whittled down the Tech lead slowly but surely, getting it into single digits and then a Henry triple with 4:59 left made it a one point game at 62-61. Tech pushed the lead back up to six, before Madonna went on a 6-0 run, five of them coming off of the hand of Jon Battle (Cleveland, Ohio). Battle, who spent last season in a Warrior uniform converted an and one and then made another free throw to make it a two-point game with 1:45 left.

Cedric Sims (Canton, Mich.) then stole the ball from Shaun Cabrera and scored at the other end to make it 67-67 with 31 ticks showing on the clock.

Tech’s Clyde McKinney made a driving layup to take the lead at 69-67 with 18 seconds left. MU boss Chuck Henry then drew up a last second play that saw Battle have his shot blocked by Brad Webster. Madonna, forced to foul, did so with three seconds left. Anthony Johnson split his free tosses and Battle grabbed the rebound and fired a prayer that would have tied the game but it bounced off the front of the rim and fell to the floor, ending the Crusaders’ season and sending the Warriors to the WHAC Championship game.

Bridges led MU with 24 in his final game and Henry, also playing his final contest as a Crusader added 18 points in the setback. Keith Hearns (Livonia, Mich.) added six tallies while Battle had five and Karvens Paillere (Romulus, Mich.) and Mike Rashad (Inkster, Mich.) had four and two points respectively in their final games for Madonna.

The Crusaders wrap up the best season in school history, posting 19 wins against just 13 losses, the first winning season in program history. MU also set a new benchmark for WHAC wins with 10.