Colla leads NMU women past Wayne State
Courtesy of NMU Athletics
MARQUETTE, Mich. – Junior guard Alyssa Colla led all scorers with 26 points as the Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team cruised to a 84-69 win over Wayne State in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference action Saturday.
With the win, NMU improved to 15-7 overall with a 12-6 league record. Wayne State took its third loss on the season falling to 19-3 overall with a 16-2 GLIAC mark.
“Today I thought we really handled ourselves well out there,” said NMU head coach Troy Mattson. “We watched a lot of film as to what we did against them last time and I thought our players did an incredible job of matching up properly and keeping them at bay.”
Colla led three NMU players in double-digit scoring, going 10-15 from the floor and 4-5 from three-point range. Junior forward Abbey DeBruin added 18 for the Wildcats and recorded her second double-double of the season pulling down a career-high 14 rebounds. Junior guard Lauren Gruber scored 11 for NMU.
NMU led 40-36 at the half. Colla led all players at the break with 16-first half points. The Wildcats jumped out to a 6-0 lead to open the game on a three-pointer from Colla and an old-fashioned three-point play by DeBruin.
NMU took its largest lead of the first half when sophomore forward Alyson Matkovich laid the ball in with 3:10 left in the half, 34-26.
The Wildcats converted 10 Wayne State turnovers into 13 points and outscored the Warriors 12-7 in second-chance points during the first half.
Northern Michigan opened the second half on an 18-6 run, taking its first double-digit lead when Debruin laid the ball in with 14-minutes left in the half, 52-42.
Free throws by freshman guard Bre Gaspervich gave NMU its largest lead of the game and capped their opening run with 10:42 left in the game, 58-42.
NMU outrebounded Wayne State 36-29 including a 13-6 advantage on the offensive boards. The Wildcats shot 40.7-percent from the floor connecting on 24-59 of their attempts. NMU was also 10-23 from three-point range and 26-27 from the charity stripe.
Wayne State had three players score in double-digits led by Shareta brown with 19. Imari Redfield added 17 while Ondrea Hughes had 11.
NMU returns to action with a trip to Lake Superior State for a 5:30 p.m. matchup Thursday.