The women’s basketball team lost to Ashland University to conclude their 2012-13 season, tallying a final score of 68-35.

Following a loss against Michigan Tech, the Wildcats competed against Ashland in the first round of GLIAC playoffs on Friday, March 8.

On Saturday, March 2, NMU faced the Huskies in a rivalry rematch after a 69-60 victory at home a month earlier.

Freshman forward Alyson Matkovich, who scored eight points against Tech, said the victory earlier in the season helped raise team morale going into the game.

“We were really confident,” Matkovich said. “There was intensity in the atmosphere and we had worked on post defense and knowing how to stop them. Now (that the season is over), we have stuff to work on in the off season.”

The first few baskets of the game were made off of free throws for both teams. The score remained close in the first half, and neither team was ever down by more than five points. Sophomore center Courtney Lemon tied the game at 15 with 10:34 left in the first period with a three-point shot.

A minute later, Lemon sunk another shot from behind the arc to once again tie the game, this time at 18.

With 15 seconds left in the first half, Matkovich scored a jump shot to lead NMU into the second half with a two point deficit, 30-32.

Head coach Troy Mattson said the team put in a hard week of practice to prepare for the game.

“It’s a big rival game that you look forward to playing all year,” Mattson said. “We had a whole week to prepare and we came in with a strong mindset. The girls played well on offense, if you look, (freshman forward) Nea Makela had nine points in the first half.”

Makela finished with nine points, four rebounds and two blocks. In the second half, Michigan Tech’s Kylie Moxley, who finished with a game-high 20 points, put in six points within three minutes to take the lead by 10.

“Kylie had an outstanding freshman year,” Mattson said. “She played well against us that day, we didn’t play well that game.”

In a period of five minutes, NMU only scored two points, which were from sophomore guard Lauren Gruber. The lack of scoring left the ’Cats with a large deficit that the team could not make up.

With 42 seconds left, junior forward Katie Becker put in two points to finish the game for NMU, leaving the team with the 71-58 loss.

NMU finished 13-13 overall in the regular season and 10-12 in the GLIAC conference play. Gruber earned All-Defensive Team honors in the GLIAC conference on Friday, March 8. Her teammate, sophomore guard Alyssa Colla, also earned honors when she was named Second Team All-GLIAC conference.

Mattson said the ’Cats finished off the season strong and began to come together as a team.

“Other than one to two games, we really played well,” Mattson said. “We played with a lot of intensity all season long. We spent a lot of time learning the last six to seven weeks and started to understand defense.”

The No. 8 seeded Wildcats moved on to play the No. 1 seeded Ashland in the GLIAC tournament quarterfinal on Wednesday, March 6, finishing with a 35-68 loss. NMU struggled on the boards, taking down 27 rebounds in comparison to Ashland’s 40 rebounds.

Colla finished the season-ending game with eight points and seven rebounds. Gruber chipped in eight points and one rebound. Sophomore forward Brooke Coenen contributed five rebounds and four points.

Mattson said the team went into the game prepared, confident and ready to play against top-ranked Ashland.

“Playing the best team in the country is a tough task,” Mattson said. “We went in with the right mindset and played hard. They were just better than us.”

Matkovich said the girls are going to take it from where they left off and work on getting better during the off season.

“Ashland is tough, they have great players,” Matkovich said. “We are going to continue to improve and hopefully match up against them.”