Huskies Close Regular Season with 72-37 Win over NMU
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Northern Michigan (17-11, 12-9GLIAC) | 8 | 7 | 15 | 7 | 37 |
|
Michigan Tech (19-7, 15-6 GLIAC) | 23 | 16 | 15 | 18 | 72 |
HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech women's basketball team powered past rival Northern Michigan Thursday night for an impressive 72-37 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference victory on the final day of the regular season. The Huskies opened the contest with a 15-2 run to grab the momentum and never looked back.
"I thought this was a tremendous win," Michigan Tech Head Coach Kim Cameron said. "Our intensity, focus, and execution throughout the game was phenomenal. We were able to limit their post players and we rebounded which is really tough against Northern Michigan. Our defense limited them to three single digit quarters which is difficult and I thought we did a great job of controlling the pace of the game."
Michigan Tech (19-7, 15-6 GLIAC) attacked the paint from the get go as sophomore Elizabeth Kelliher dropped in the first six points of the night on layups. Senior Morgan Anderson had three assists leading to the 6-0 advantage with 7:39 remaining in the first quarter. Northern Michigan (17-11, 12-9 GLIAC) didn't get their first points until nearly three minutes into the contest when Jessica Schultz converted a pair of free throws.
The next nine points in the quarter would then go on the stat sheet for the Huskies. Redshirt junior Brenna Heise connected on a jumper off an assist from junior Lindsay Winter followed by another jumper courtesy of redshirt junior Kelli Guy. Heise then converted a pair of free throws and dialed in a triple to cap the 9-0 scoring burst with 5:05 left in the first quarter.
Sophomore Michelle LaFave bumped Tech's lead to 15 points at 21-6 with just over a minute to play in the quarter and Anderson kept it that way at 23-8 with a jumper right before the buzzer. The shot answered a pair of Wildcat free throws from Darby Youngstrom that occurred with 51 seconds remaining in the first frame. Winter then boosted the gap to 26-8 in the first minute of the second quarter on a trey from the wing, keeping the pressure on NMU.
Bre Gaspervich cut the Tech advantage down to 26-12 on a layup with 7:20 left to play in the second quarter, but the Huskies had the answer with another long scoring run. LaFave got it rolling with a layup and a jumper to push the lead out to 18 points again at 30-12. Anderson then followed with back to back layups, the second of which resulted in a conventional three-point play after a Wildcat foul. Anderson's successful free throw gave the Huskies a 35-12 lead at the midway point of the second quarter.
After three plus minutes of neither side putting points on the board, Youngstrom recorded a layup and added a free throw to cut the advantage to 35-15 for the Huskies. Michigan Tech chalked up the final four points of the first half on jumpers by Heise and Anderson which enabled the Huskies to carry a 39-15 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Northern Michigan made a bit of a run in the first half of the third quarter, trimming the gap down to 18 points at 41-23 following a jumper by Erin Honkala with 4:56 on the clock. However, the Huskies quickly thwarted the Wildcats rally with 11 consecutive points of their own. Heise and Winter teamed up for a pair of trey's followed by an Anderson jumper just outside the paint. Heise capped the run with another triple to make it a 52-23 score with 2:37 left in the third quarter. The Wildcats were unable to threaten the rest of the night.
Heise and Anderson powered the Huskies with 17 points with each player connecting on 50 percent or more of their field goals. Heise matched a season and career high with three triples and led the team on the boards with seven rebounds. Anderson recorded six rebounds and had a game high eight assists. LaFave added a career high 10 points after going 5 of 7 from the field and Winter rounded out the double digit scorers with 10 points for Tech. Nine different players put up points for the Huskies in Thursday's win.
As a team, the Huskies found the bottom of the net on 29 of 51 attempts from the field which produced a season high 56.9 shooting percentage. Tech made 6 of 13 tries from behind the three-point arc (46.2%), and cashed in 8 of 9 looks from the charity stripe (88.9%). Tech out-rebounded Northern Michigan 39-25 and the bench outscored the Wildcats reserves 20-0.
Northern Michigan was paced by Gaspervich with 14 points followed by Youngstrom with nine points. Honkala was limited to six points, but hauled down a team high six rebounds. The Wildcats made 13 of 53 shots from the field (24.5%), were 2 of 5 from three-point range (40.0%), and 9 of 12 at the foul line (75.0%).
The Huskies will be back on the floor Tuesday night when they host Ohio Dominican in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Quarterfinals. The tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the SDC Wood Gym.
