NMU women fall at home to Wayne State

MARQUETTE, Mich. — Northern Michigan University senior guard Alyssa Colla put up 20 points and recorded a team-high six rebounds as the NMU women’s basketball team dropped a 69-57 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matchup to No. 8 Wayne State Monday at the Berry Events Center.

The loss drops NMU to 4-3 overall with a 2-2 GLIAC mark. Wayne State improved to 5-1 with a 3-1 league record.

Wayne State’s Sharita Brown led all players with 27 points and 19 rebounds, including 21 second-half points.

“We did not do a very good job of securing the basketball on the defensive end when we got the misses from them, they had 16 offensive rebounds and dominated us on the board” said NMU head coach Troy Mattson. “Basketball starts from the inside out, you have to dominate the defensive glass, protect against layups and you have to be able to get layups yourself. We did not finish shots late in the game when we got the ball down to a couple of our post players. If you don’t make layups and you don’t stop them from making layups you aren’t going to win a lot of basketball games. We’ve had a little bit of an issue with that this year and we are going to have to find a way to correct it.”

A layup from Colla with 13:29 left in the first gave NMU a 14-9 lead, it’s largest of the game.

A pair of free throws by senior guard Lauren Gruber with 1:03 left in the first half gave the Wildcats a 31-29 lead that they carried into the break.

NMU senior center Courtney Lemon went 5-5 from three-point range in the first half to lead all players at the break with 15 points. As a team, NMU shot 11-27 from the floor (40.7%) and were 7-13 (53.8) from three-point range.

The game remained within two possessions until the final 1:04 of action when Brown laid the ball in to give the Warriors a 65-57 advantage. Brown then went 4-4 from the free throw line in the final minute to seal the victory.

Along with Lemon and Colla, Gruber rounded out the double-digit scorers for NMU with 14 including going 7-7 from the free throw line.

Wayne State out rebounded NMU 43-32 and outscored the Wildcats 34-20 in the paint. NMU finished the game shooting 37-percent from the floor (20-34) and was 8-17 (47.1%) from three-point range and 9-10 from the free throw line.

The Warriors shot 39-percent from the floor (23-59), were 1-7 from three point range and connected on 22-31 attempts from the free throw line.

NMU returns to action Thursday, Dec. 18 at 6:30 p.m. when they travel to Lewis for a non conference matchup against the Flyers.

(Information/Photo Courtesy of NMU Athletics)