Fort Wayne, Ind. — The WHAC regular season champion Indiana Tech Warriors showcased why they are the defending three-time conference tournament winners with a 95-80 win over the Aquinas men's basketball team Thursday night (Feb. 23) inside the Schaefer Center.

The No. 8-seeded Saints (12-16, 8-12 WHAC), needing an upset-win to keep their season alive, bowed out in the WHAC Tournament quarterfinals for a third straight season. Meanwhile, the top-seeded Warriors (26-3, 18-2 WHAC) notched their 11th consecutive win.

Aquinas senior forward Gabe Overway poured in a game-high 29 points on 13-for-15 shooting in his final collegiate game. AQ freshman forward Donovan Brown-Boyd matched his career-high with 21 points to give the front court duo 50 of the Saints' 80 points.

Indiana Tech scored the first seven points on Thursday, as Grant Smith sunk an opening 3-pointer, Rog Stein added a layup and Smith tacked on another jumper. With 13:11 in the first half, the Warriors' lead had expanded out to 15 points at 25-10 and also 27-12.

The Saints battled back with a 16-4 run halfway through the first half. Menalito McGee and Overway each made a triple in the spurt, plus guards Payton Harley and Devon Boyd both made their first field goals of the contest.

The deficit was only four points with a minute left before halftime. But, the Warriors closed out the half with a 5-0 run, as Cory McKinney converted a layup and Max Perez buried a 3-pointer in the final seconds. Indiana Tech led 44-35 at the break.

In the first half, Warriors' Blake Davison and Steve Helm both reached double figures in scoring with 12 points and 10 points, respectively, on 8-for-10 shooting from the field. Yet, it was Smith who led Indiana Tech in scoring at the end of the game with 19 points.

A Davison triple a little over a minute into the second half but Indiana Tech up 10 points. Aquinas never managed to get the deficit back into the single digits. The Warriors led by as many as 22 points before pulling the starters and letting the reserves finish out the game.

Out of the 15 Warriors that got into the contest, 13 ended up scoring with the team finishing with a 59.1 shooting percentage. Besides Overway and Brown-Boyd, only four other Saints scored for Aquinas: Harley (10 points), McGee (nine), Nick Henry (Seven) and Boyd (four). AQ finished with a 49.2 shooting percentage.

The Saints only committed seven turnovers — tied for second fewest this season — but didn't make enough shots to keep up with the Warriors' high-scoring offense. The 95 points allowed was the most AQ was given up this season.

Both teams finished 7-for-21 from behind the arc. The Warriors narrowly won the rebound battle (36-31), second chance points (15-11) and points in the paint (44-36).

Indiana Tech advances to the WHAC Tournament semifinals on Saturday (Feb. 25) against No. 4-seeded Rochester. The top four seeded teams in the conference all advanced on Thursday to reach the semifinals. The WHAC Tournament title game will be held Tuesday (Feb. 28) with the higher seed hosting.