Lourdes captured its first Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament title in program history on Monday evening, rolling past Madonna 79-61 inside the Alliance Catholic Credit Union Arena in Livonia, Mich.
 
"This is the best," head coach Dennis Hopson said after the title.  "I love my group of guys.  They played well all year and it paid off tonight.  The last three games we played solid basketball and never panicked."
 
Lourdes came out fast.  After Madonna scored the game's first three, the Gray Wolves ran off the next 11 points to build an eight-point advantage less than four minutes into the contest.  The lead grew to 13, 23-10, midway through the stanza as the Gray Wolves started the game 5-of-9 from three-point range while forcing six turnovers.
 
With Lourdes in front 31-19 at the 6:45 mark, Madonna hit a pair of threes to pull within six before Charles Swain (Cincinnati, Ohio/North College Hill H.S.) made back-to-back triples of his own to push the advantage back to 12.  The Gray Wolves took a 42-30 lead into the locker room as Swain made five first half threes.
 
Lourdes was 10-of-20 from long range in the opening 20 minutes and turned six offensive rebounds into 11 second chance points.
 
The Gray Wolves led 48-35 early in the second half when Madonna scored five straight to draw within eight at the 16-minute mark.  Lourdes responded, and back-to-back dunks and a lay-in by McRay White (Cleveland, Ohio/Garfield Heights H.S.) extended the lead to 18, 62-44, with under 11 minutes to play.
 
Joey Holifield (Toledo, Ohio/Cardinal Stritch H.S.) drained a three with eight minutes to play as the advantage swelled to 22, 70-48 and the Gray Wolves went into cruise control down the stretch.
 
Swain tallied a career-high 21 points while Nick Welch (Temperance, Mich./Saint Mary Catholic Central H.S.) added 17 points and 13 rebounds for a double-double.  Little Anderson (Toledo, Ohio/Cardinal Stritch H.S.) tallied 14 points while Joey Holifield (Toledo, Ohio/Cardinal Stritch H.S.) and White each tallied 10 points.
 
Lourdes shot 49.9% from the floor, including 42.9% (12-of-28) from three-point range.
 
Ryan Nunn led Madonna (21-12) with 14 points.
 
"Since I've been here I've told the guys going to the national tournament is the best experience ever," Hopson said.  You have to play hard and play smart to be one of the two teams to represent our league and we did that."
 
Lourdes (24-7) earns one of two automatic bids from the WHAC to the NAIA Men's Basketball National Championships Opening Round which will take place March 11-12 at 16 predetermined sites.  The selection show will take place Thursday evening (March 3) at 8 p.m.