NMU men’s basketball fall to Lakers

Courtesy of NMU Athletics

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team dropped a 76-61 loss at Lake Superior State Thursday (Feb. 20) in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match up.

“It was a tough game, but I thought we played and competed hard,” stated head coach Bill Sall. “Lake State is a really good team, and I’m very happy with the way we played. We missed some shots, played a little frantically, but just overall lost to a tough team.”

NMU drops to 5-19 overall and 4-16 in the GLIAC with the loss while the Lakers improve to 24-3 and 16-3 in the conference.

LSSU led by as many as 16 points in the first half. After trailing by nine, the Wildcats cut their deficit to five with 5:08 remaining. Back-to-back jump shots by junior guard Ethan Blackwell and junior forward Chavis Mattison put NMU back in the game, 25-20.

The Lakers went on a 13-6 run to close the half, leading 38-24 at the break. Junior forward Justin Newell led the Wildcats with eight first-half points.

LSSU kept its lead for the remainder of the game, with its largest lead of 23 (76-53) with two minutes left in the game. The Wildcats went on an 8-0 in the closing minutes of the game to cut the Lakers lead to 15.

Blackwell kicked off the run with a pair of free throws with 2:06 remaining. Freshman guard Wade Schetter drained a three-pointer with 1:09 left to go. Junior guard Larry Taylor then hit the second half of a pair of free throws before freshman guard Dorrell Foster hit a jumper as time expired in the contest.

Four Wildcats tallied double figure points led by freshman guard Marcus Hall led with 13 points, Mattison added 12, Blackwell had 11 and junior forward Justin Newell scored 10. Mattison led in rebounds, pulling down eight total.

NMU shot 20-55 (36.4 percent) and were 14-21 (66.7) at the free throw line.

The Lakers were led by Cameron Metz with 23 points. Alex Williams added 15 and Derek Billing had 11. LSSU shot 24-51 (47.1 percent) from the floor and 21-28 (75 percent) from the free throw line.

NMU plays in its final road game at 3 p.m. Saturday (Feb. 22) at Northwood.