The Women Wildcats traveled up to Houghton last Saturday to face off against their U.P. rival Michigan Tech falling short, 68-80. This loss rounded out the regular reason for the Wildcats who finished 15-12.

“It was a little bit with our defense … they were knocking down everything that they were throwing up,” Head Coach Casey Thousand said. “We take pride in our defense and need to be a little bit better, a little bit tighter with what we’re doing … we made a little run, and we came out firing right out of the gate.”

Most of the team came back from last year which was a big help for the team to go 15-12 during the regular season. Junior guard Makaylee Kuhn put up 23 points, three assists and three rebounds during the game on Saturday.

“Makaylee is going to get hers. She does a great job doing it. She searches for her shot every time that she has the ball. But now I think Mack is even stepping up a little bit too and is scoring, but she also does it on the defensive end both to play a ton of minutes,” Thousand said.

Sophomore forward Abi Fraaza had 10 points, one assist and four rebounds. Sophomore guard Mackenzie Holzwart also had a big game with 13 points, two assists and two rebounds.

“They got a little bit older; they got a little bit stronger. They did a lot in the offseason, which I think is a huge building up knowing that they wanted to be really good this year,” Thousand said. “I think this is a step in the right direction.”

Sophomore guard Taya Stevenson had five points, four rebounds and one assist in the Tech game.

This set the ‘Cats up going into the postseason, kicking off on Wednesday, March 1. The ‘Cats hosted Saginaw Valley State who they played earlier in the season twice.

“It’s going to be another battle for sure. We’re figuring out lineups and switching things around,” Thousand said. “It’s going to be another battle defensively for us. But again, we got to get the ball out and we got to be able to score on the offensive side.”

A tough first half led to an eight-point loss to the Cardinals in the first round of the GLIAC tournament, ending the Wildcats season. NMU ends the season with a 15-13 record, a three-game improvement from last season.