NMU women rally for win vs. Findlay

MARQUETTE, Mich. — After trailing by 10 in the second half, the Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team powered back to pick up a 66-59 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win over Findlay Saturday at the Berry Events Center.

The win moves NMU to 4-2 on the season with a 2-1 mark in league play while Findlay fell to 4-3 with a 1-3 league record.

Senior guard Alyssa Colla led all players with a game high 20 points connecting on 6-8 from the floor, 2-3 from three-point range and 6-7 of her free throw attempts. Colla also led NMU with five assists.

Sophomore guard Bre Gaspervich And senior guard Lauren Gruber both recorded 16-points for NMU while Gruber led the squad with eight rebounds.

A layup by Ciara Geiger gave the Oilers a 48-38 lead with 10-minutes left in the game. NMU chipped away at the lead and a layup by Gruber with 2:50 left in the outing tied the game for NMU at 55-55.

NMU took the lead when senior forward Courtney Lemon connected on a pair of free throws at the 1:57 mark. NMU outscored the Oilers 11-4 in the final two-minutes of action to pick up the victory.

“We have a very good basketball team, I am very proud of them. But we don’t have a lot of firepower. We have some people that are very good players, I think we are a very good defensive team, especially when its crunch time they have a great understanding of what is supposed to happen,” said head coach Troy Mattson.” There is one thing that they have learned over a few years, and a lot of it is ingrained in them, but they just have a lot of toughness, we aren’t going to back down. My biggest goal over the Christmas break is to continue to get the players coming off the bench to play better.”

NMU trailed by two at the break, 26-24, after leading by eight in the first half. NMU shot 55.6-percent from the floor (10-18) in the first half and were led by Gruber’s eight first half points.

The Wildcats dominated the lane, outrebounding the Oilers 31-24 and outscoring them in the paint 24-18. Findlay was able to force 16 NMU turnovers which them converted into 20 points. The Oilers committed 10 miscues which NMU scored 14 off of.

NMU finished the game shooting 54.8-percent from the floor (23-42), 41.7% from three-point range (10-24) and were 10-12 from the free throw line.

Margaret Wuebker led the Oilers with 14 points in the outing.

NMU returns to action on Monday when they host Wayne State at 3 p.m. at the Berry Events Center.

(Information/Photo Courtesy of NMU Athletics)