GLEN ELLYN, ILL. - With their backs against the wall and the future of their season on the line, the Madison College men's basketball team put forth a valiant effort Wednesday night, only to come up shot in a 64-62 Region IV Quarterfinal loss at the College of DuPage. The loss ends the WolfPack's season with an overall record of 10-19.

Trailing by a dozen points to start the second half, Madison College still found themselves with a double-digit deficit at the midway point of the half. Sophomore Malek Lemke knocked down a shot in the paint igniting the comeback effort. The WolfPack trimmed the differential to four on a Tyler Meier three-pointer - his fifth of the game - with 2:12 remaining. After Cortez McCree sandwiched a pair of buckets around a Chaparrals jumper, Madison College was given their final chance to pull out the win.

"We fouled them with just over a second to play and they missed the front end of a one-and-one, so we called a timeout," detailed head coach Scot Vesterdahl of the final sequence. "We've been working on a full-court, final second play all season and this was our chance to use it. The pass from 'Tez (McCree) was a little off, but Ethan (Lurquin) caught it, spun and shot a fadeaway. It was right in my line of sight and I thought it was going in. Unfortunately, it came up a little short."

The need for a big rally came as a result of a rough first half in which Madison College scored just 24 points on 8-of-18 shooting and committed ten of their 17 turnovers. Comparatively, DuPage was able to attempt 31 shots in the half, converting 12 of them.

Tyler Meier paced the WolfPack with 17 points, his third highest point total of the season. The sophomore's 5-for-8 effort beyond the arc marked his seventh game of four or more triples this season, and he finished at 45.1% (64-142) for the year, the fourth best single season mark in program history. Fellow second year guard Kristian Zimmerman led the bench scoring with 14 points, his third double-digit scoring total in the last four games. The Green Bay NEW Lutheran product hit 5-of-9 shots and finished 4-for-5 at the free throw line, while also tallying a team-high three steals. Also in double figures was forward Ethan Lurquin with 11 points, to go along with a team-best six rebounds. Despite joining the team at the semester break, Lurquin finished the season as the WolfPack's leading scorer at 17.4 points per game.

"If the game was just one minute longer I think we win and move on," stated Vesterdahl. "We had been outplaying them most of the second half, and especially down the stretch. But that maybe summarizes our season: always coming up a bit short. We've had so many close losses and just haven't been able to finish out games. Our kids played their hearts out though, both tonight and this season."

Madison College went 2-4 in games that finished within three points - two of the losses coming in Glen Ellyn, Illinois - and were winless in three overtime games.

The win for the College of DuPage (18-11) advances the Chaparrals to the Region IV Tournament Semifinals against top-seeded and top-ranked Rock Valley College. That game tips at 6:00 p.m. in Milwaukee (Alverno College), and will be followed by an 8:00 p.m. start for the other semifinal between second-seeded Milwaukee Area Technical College and third-seeded Joliet Junior College, which eliminated sixth-seeded Harper College with an 87-77 win Wednesday.