Box Score PALATINE, Ill. – Despite a career effort from Tyler Gaedele (Arlington Heights, Ill., Rolling Meadows ), the Harper College men's basketball team fell just a little bit short.  The Hawks led by as many as nine points in the second half but a basket by Chad McDowell with seven seconds left gave Milwaukee Area Technical College a 73-71 victory over Harper.
 
Tied 71-71, the Stormers (8-12, 3-2 N4C) rebounded a Harper (9-12, 1-4) miss and called timeout with 20 seconds and called timeout.  The Stormers' Jermaine Brisco drove to the basket and his shot went in and out but McDowell rebounded and converted.  With no timeouts left, the Hawks quickly pushed the ball up court.  Michael Rose (Rolling Meadows, Ill., Rolling Meadows) dished to Charles Wright (Cheyenne, Wyo., Cheyenne East), who's off-balance layup rolled off the rim as the buzzer sounded.
 
With Garett Gatz (Elk Grove Village, Ill., Conant) sidelined due to injury, Gaedele more than picked up the slack.  The freshman knocked down eight 3-pointers for a career-high 29 points.  Six of those came in the first half and his second of the evening, just over six minutes into the game, gave Harper an 18-12 lead.
 
Connor Miklasz (Mount Prospect, Ill., Hersey), who drained three 3-pointers of his own and finished with 16 points and five assists, canned a trey for a 25-18 lead.  Moments later, Gaedele went on a 3-point shooting binge, knocking down three in a span of 2:37, the last of which gave Harper their biggest lead at 37-26.
 
Milwaukee, however, responded with a 10-0 run and eventually closed to within 44-43 at halftime.  Bobby Saxton, who led the Stormers with 21 points, had two baskets and two free throws during the spurt.
 
The Hawks jumped to their biggest advantage of the second half due to some inspired play from Miklasz.  First he scored on a layup and then he knocked down a long 3-pointer.  And after Wright beautifully anticipated a cross-court pass and turned it into a layup, Harper led 59-52 with 13:59 to play.
 
Harper still led 69-63 with 5:19 left after Wright's rebound and putback, but a scoreless stretch of 3:39 ultimately did them in.  Milwaukee put up seven points in that span to pull ahead by one.  The Hawks final basket came on Miklasz's lead pass to Rose for a dunk.  Jacob Lindmeire's free throw tied the game at 71-71 with 1:16 left to set up McDowell's heroics.
 
Wright finished with 11 points and seven rebounds while Rose tallied eight points, six rebounds and five steals.  John Lorenz (Elk Grove, Ill., Elk Grove)z pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds for a Hawks squad that shot 37.8% (28-for-74) from the floor.
 
Up next, Harper faces the top team in the N4C, Triton College, the 16^th ranked team in Div. II.  Saturday's tipoff in River Grove, Ill. will be at 3:00 PM.