by CARSON LEMAHIEU
assistant sports editor
The NMU women’s basketball team continued their season last Thursday, losing to Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) foe Lake Superior State University (LSSU) by a score of 59-73.
The ‘Cats opened Thursday game on a hot streak, jumping out to an early 15-6 lead with just over 12:00 left in the first half. The LSSU Lakers responded with a 23-6 run on their way to a seven point half time lead.
“I’ve got to hand it to Lake State,” NMU head coach Troy Mattson said. “We jumped out early in the game and [they] countered and started making shots.”
The Wildcats couldn’t surmount LSSU’s halftime lead as the Lakers went on another run to start the second half and extended their lead to 18 points. The Lakers shot 52.3 percent from the field and 64.7 percent from beyond the three point arc for the game.
“Lake State came out and shot lights out,” senior Allison Carroll said.
The Lakers controlled the boards in Saturday’s game, out rebounding the ‘Cats 38 to 27. Carroll led the Wildcats with five rebounds in the contest. Shalyn Beauchamp and Alyssa VanderWal each grabbed a game high seven boards for the Lakers.
The ‘Cats were led by freshman Steffani Stoeger, who scored a career high 22 points in the game. Carroll was the Wildcats second leading scorer with 14 points, she also added five rebounds. Junior Kelsey Deacon also scored in double figures for NMU, adding 10.
“Stephanie Stoeger has played unbelievably well. She’s just a warrior,” Mattson said. “She has great talent, great athleticism, and she has become a great offensive player for us.”
Stoeger along with Hillary Bowling, Kellie Reitveld, and Erin Powers have teamed up to give the Wildcats a roster filled with young talent. All four of these freshmen have been playing extended minutes this season.
These four freshmen have combined to score 26 percent of NMU’s total points this season. Stoeger leads the freshman class with 8.6 points per game; she also leads the ‘Cats in steals with 46.
“Our freshmen are playing great right now and that’s definitely what we need,” Carroll said.
The other freshman to play in every game this year is Kellie Reitveld, who is averaging 5.3 points and two rebounds per game. Mattson said Reitveld’s main asset is her strong defensive play.
NMU will look to these freshmen to step up and help the team in the last six games of the season. Northern plays road games against three of the top teams in the GLIAC North Division: Ferris State, Grand Valley State University, and Michigan Tech.
On Thursday, Northern plays Ferris State (13-8 overall, 8-4 GLIAC). Ferris State has not won a game since they beat NMU 81-66 on January 24. Ferris State leads the GLIAC in scoring averaging 74.3 points per game.
The Bulldogs are led on the offensive attack by pre-season GLIAC player of the year Rachel Folcik who is averaging over 20 points per game. Mattson said that the team will have to focus and bring a lot of energy to the game if they want to upset Ferris State. He also stressed the importance of making open shots.
“We’re not playing bad. We’ve kept our turnovers down and played good defense,” Mattson said. “The biggest thing is that we aren’t making any shots. That’s the name of the game. You need to get the ball in the basket to win and we haven’t done that very well lately.”
On Saturday, the ‘Cats (8-12, 3-9) take on the GVSU Lakers (13-8, 8-4). Thursday’s game starts at 6 p.m. and Saturday’s begins at 1 p.m.
“We still have some games left to try to win this year and we need to do whatever we can to win those games,” Mattson added.
