The NMU women’s basketball team swept up the weekend at home while hosting Parkside and Purdue Northwest. All three teams are unranked this week in the polls. The ‘Cats took down Parkside 71-60 and Purdue Northwest 73-62. 

“It was great, at home when you can get two wins in the conference, it’s huge,” Head Coach Casey Thousand said. “The way that we played against Parkside was great and then [with] Purdue Northwest the first half got a little shaky, we were tied at halftime, but I think [in] our third quarter we came out, we were ready to play so it was fun, it was exciting.”

Sophomore Guard Jacy Weisbrod had 15 points in the game against Parkside and Senior Guard Makaylee Kuhn had 25 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Kuhn also had 25 points, six rebounds, and one assist in the game against Purdue Northwest, earning her GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week. 

The score was close going into halftime against Parkside with the ‘Cats up by one point, and the halftime score in the Purdue Northwest game was tied at 30 points. The ‘Cats were able to come up big in the second halves of both games. They were able to score 25 points in the third quarter against Purdue Northwest. 

“When [Kuhn] gets going you just kind of you feed her and you let her go,” Thousand said. “We are fresh, and you just got to keep going and when we came out on the third … it was just kind of like, oh boom, all right now we’re back and I was really happy with how we came out at halftime.”

This week, the team will travel up to Houghton to take on Michigan Tech. Previously this season, Tech beat the Cats at home 71-58. 

“It’s going to be back and forth, it’s going to be up and down,” Thousand said. “It’s what it is between us and Tech, it’s always a battle and it’s always a fight.”

After their game against Michigan Tech, the Cats will have just four regular-season games, in which they will face conference teams all fighting for spots in the postseason.

“Everybody’s got to bring it, we’re trying to make a big push here coming through,” Thousand said. “None of the games are going to be easy, it doesn’t matter what their record is because right now everybody’s fighting and, in our conference, everybody battles every single game.” 

Tip-off for the Tech game is at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Houghton. The team will not be playing in Marquette again until the end of the month with the team traveling next weekend to play Wayne State. 

“We can’t dig ourselves a hole [and] try and dig out of it,” Thousand said. “We got to be ready to go right as soon as that ball is tipped on Saturday.”