The Wildcats had a crucial win last Thursday, defeating the nationally ranked Hillsdale.
The game was a close call. The ‘Cats started out rough, not scoring until ten minutes in. After that, NMU put up more of a fight, and by half time the score was 33-23. The second half of the contest saw the Wildcats playing much stronger, offensively and defensively.
However, it was a very close match, up until the final seconds. With 6 seconds left in the game, the Wildcats were down by two points. Steffani Stoeger was up for 2 free throws. After purposely missing her second attempt, Junior Angie Leckson grabbed the rebound, and passed it to senior Kelsey Deacon, who sank a three-pointer, sealing the victory.
“Angie (Leckson) got a huge re-bound, Steff (Stoeger) did a good job hitting the free throw, it just worked out”, Deacon said.
Head coach Troy Mattson was more than happy with the way the play turned out.
“It was a great play by Steff (Stoeger). Angie did an incredible job to go in there as hard as she did. She kicked it to Kelsey, and we had a game winner”, Mattson said.
Besides assisting in the game-winning play, Angie Leckson was crucial to the defense throughout the game.
“She defended well, she rebounded well, she’s been playing well in the past couple of weeks, she’s been getting us points”, Mattson said.
Sophomore Steffani Stoeger played a key role in sealing the team’s victory, racking in a total of 10 points and five rebounds.
“It was a big, big accomplishment for our team. To pull it off in the second half like we did was great. I think what got us there was how hard we worked, and not giving up throughout the whole game, even when we were down in the first half,” Stoeger said.
Meanwhile, Sophomore Kellie Rietveld came out with a total of 12 points, playing a key role to the offensive campaign in the latter half of the game.
“It goes to show that we can beat the best teams out there, we just have to play our best. It also shows that if we can beat Hillsdale, then we definitely need to pick up wins this coming weekend,” Rietveld said.
Next week the team is on the road against Saginaw Valley State (3-22) and Lake Superior State (15-13).
