The past weekend was a tough one for the NMU men’s basketball team since they dropped two games at home against conference opponents. The Wildcats (1-7 GLIAC, 6-9 overall) suffered their most one-sided defeat of the year on Thursday, Jan. 13 as Saginaw Valley (2-6 GLIAC, 6-8 overall) came away with the 97-68 win.
Head coach Doug Lewis said he has been adjusting the lineup and playing the athletes out of position to increase the team’s chances of winning.
“As a coach you’re trying to figure out what you can do,” Lewis said. “Right now we don’t have a natural point guard out there. I’m just putting my best players out there and trying to give myself a shot to win.”
The ’Cats struggled to find an offensive rhythm against Saginaw. The Cardinals held NMU to 34 percent shooting from the field and 31 percent from three-point land. The Cardinals, on the other hand, shot 56 percent from deep, and converted 18 triples. Junior center Jarrod Benson knows the team has to focus on defending the three-point shot.
“You got to take away those three-point shots,” Benson said. “That’s what’s been killing us.”
Junior guard Martin Gross led the ’Cats in scoring with 15 points on the game, while sophomore shooting guard Chris Paquin contributed 12 points off the bench.
On Saturday, Jan. 15, the ’Cats hosted rival Lake Superior State University (4-4 GLIAC, 10-5 overall) and played a down-to-the-wire game but came up short, losing 79-73. The Wildcats played from behind most of the game, but kept competing and Lewis said that’s what he wanted to see out of his team.
“We played better today, and that’s the only thing I can ask … compete, play hard, and let the -results handle themselves,” Lewis said.
Freshman forward Matthew Craggs got the ’Cats on the board first with two three-pointers. Craggs, who finished with 14 points, hit another big three late in the game to pull NMU back into the game. Lewis praised his freshman who has been playing out of position but taking it in stride.
“Craggs is one of the best freshmen in the league; he’s going to be a stud,” Lewis said. “His ceiling is high (and) he works hard. You see, I’m playing him at the two, and that’s not his position, but he’s our best shooter and he’s just getting better game by game.”
Junior forward DeAndre Taylor led the ’Cats scoring attack with 18 points, including a huge alley-oop in the first half that got the crowd into the game. NMU stuck around the entire game, even after trailing the Lakers by 12 in the second half. Sophomore forward Mylan Murphy hit a pair of huge threes late in the game to cut the lead to one. The ’Cats’ defense had a better showing, but were unable to stop the Lakers down the stretch.
“They run a lot of screens. It takes a lot of talking, a lot of team defense to get through that,” Benson said. “I thought we did pretty well on it. They just hit a lot of big shots down the stretch, they pulled it out.”
Benson and Gross also chipped in 12 and 11 points to round out the scoring attack for the Wildcats.
On Thursday Jan. 20 the team travels to Grand Valley to take on the Lakers (8-1 GLIAC, 13-3 overall). On Saturday Jan. 22 the ’Cats travel to Big Rapids to take on the Ferris State Bulldogs (7-2 GLIAC, 11-5 overall).
