The Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team was able to split their home series last week, as the Wildcats beat the Saginaw Valley Cardinals 84-72 on Thursday, Jan. 13, but lost to the Lake Superior State Lakers 62-58 on Saturday, Jan. 15. The Wildcats are now 2-6 in the GLIAC and 7-8 overall.
However, the reemergence of the team’s offense was the big story of the weekend. The 84 points against Saginaw Valley were the most points scored in a GLIAC game this year and the 58 points against LSSU ranked fourth highest in points scored for the Wildcats. The shooting percentage for the weekend’s games was also 5.6 percent higher than the season average.
“Our overall shooting worked better,” said guard Steffani Stoeger. “(It) worked better from the outside, so it opened up things on the inside.”
On Thursday, the Wildcats had four of the five starters scoring in double digits, with guard Chelsea Lyons leading the way with 22. Stoeger, Hillary Bowling and Stacy Beckel also added to the totals with 19, 17 and 12 points respectively. The fifth starter, Kelly Rietveld, also added nine in the win over the Cardinals (4-10, 2-6 GLIAC).
“We were aggressive,” Rietveld said. “We looked at the opportunities that the defense gave us and we took them.”
Saturday, however, was a slower start for the ’Cats. The visiting Lakers (10-4, 7-1 GLIAC) went up 14 points before a 10-3 NMU run tightened the score to 33-27 at halftime. The end of the second half became just as exciting as the first, as Northern was able to get four possessions within the final minute to be down by one point with 21 seconds left.
After the inbound, the Wildcats were unable to get the winning basket, as Rietveld’s shot went off the rim. A corresponding foul on the rebound and a technical on the bench gave the Lakers the necessary free throws to increase the scoring margin.
“It was disappointing, because we gave everything we could in the last 30 minutes of the game and to have it end like that hurt,” Stoeger said. “When we have an opportunity to put a team away like that, we have to take (the victory).”
Next up for Northern Michigan is a trip downstate to Allendale to face the No. 19 Grand Valley State Lakers (12-3, 6-3 GLIAC) tonight before coming back to Big Rapids to face the Ferris State Bulldogs (7-8, 3-6 GLIAC). This will be the second and final time that the Wildcats will play these teams in the regular season, as NMU lost to GVSU 65-59 and beat FSU 75-56 on Dec. 18-19 at home.
“I think we’re going to come out with the same focus and -intensity as we did when we were at home,” Stoeger said. “We backed ourselves into a wall in conference play, but I’m confident that the team will go out strong on the road.”
