The men’s basketball team will host the final home series of regular season this weekend after coming off of a couple losses to Saginaw Valley State and top-ranked Wayne State University.
On Saturday, Feb. 16, the ’Cats faced the current No. 1-ranked team in the GLIAC North division. Wayne State won the game, 66-46.
Head coach Doug Lewis said the ’Cats are working on matching up to the more difficult teams, such as Wayne State.
“Any sport is all about matchups,” Lewis said. “This game was a bad matchup for us with their quickness and athleticism, and we’re trying to get better at that.”
Early on, the game remained close between the two teams. The Wildcats took their first lead at 14:20 on the clock when junior forward Scooter Johnson, who finished with a team-high 14 points, hit a three-point shot to put the ’Cats up by one, 9-8.
The ’Cats lost their lead when Wayne State’s Bryan Coleman hit a two-point jumper to give the Warriors the advantage.
After that basket, NMU could not recover the lead.
The ’Cats stayed closer to the Warriors in the second half when they scored 33 points to WSU’s 38.
NMU also out-rebounded the Warriors in the overall game, 29-27.
Johnson said the team really worked on the rebounding end and managed to pick it up after the halftime break.
“We did a good job on rebounding,” Johnson said. “We did a real good job of rebounding the whole weekend. We did alright on defense into the second half.”
Sophomore forward Kendall Jackson put in 11 points for the ’Cats, contributed one steal and a block, and tied with WSU’s Ian Larkin for a game-high seven rebounds.
Freshman guard Stephen Pelkofer hit four from behind the arc in the second half to tally his 12 game points.
Senior forward Joe Simon contributed five rebounds for the Wildcats, and senior forward TJ Cameron had three steals for the ’Cats.
Lewis said the team worked on the rebounding end of the game, but needed to master the defense to claim a win over the top-seed in the conference.
“We rebounded well as a team, and you have to do that if you’re going to win,” Lewis said. “The name of the game is defense and rebounding, and I think we did one of them well. We just didn’t play defense.”
On Thursday, Feb. 14, the ’Cats lost to Saginaw Valley State University, 51-57, leaving the Wildcats at 4-15 in the conference.
In the first period of the game, NMU held the lead by as much as 10 points. However, SVSU began to pick up the deficit, and a three-pointer from Saginaw’s Brett Beland gave the Cardinals a one-point lead.
The Wildcats were down 29-30 going into the half.
Johnson said fatigue played a part in the lapse in play.
“We got a little tired and let up on defense,” Johnson said. “We turned the ball over too many times and they scored and knocked off our lead.”
In the second half, the teams tied the score six times as play continued to go back and forth.With 5:55 left in the game, the Cardinal’s Damon Bozeman sunk a three-point shot that gave SVSU a lead of seven.
However, the ’Cats brought the deficit down to two with 1:58 left after Johnson finished a three-point play. At that point, the Wildcats were behind in a close 51-53 game.
The Cardinals made it to the line and sunk several free throws, which sealed the game for SVSU, leaving the Wildcats with a loss.
The ’Cats play Lake Superior State at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 21 at the Berry Events Center, and then face Northwood at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23 at the Berry Events Center.
Johnson said the game against SVSU was a good experience for the Wildcats to work together as a team.
“We finished good as a team,” Johnson said. “We came together, bonded, cut the lead down, and it was a pretty close game.”
