PREVIEW: Wildcats visit Houghton on Senior Day

HOUGHTON, Mich. - Michigan Tech women's basketball celebrates the accomplishments of three distinguished seniors and concludes the regular season at SDC Gymnasium against Northern Michigan Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Huskies (22-5, 14-3 GLIAC) have won three straight and have locked up the second seed in the GLIAC Tournament, behind No. 5 ranked Grand Valley State (25-2, 16-1 GLIAC) at the top of the conference standings. The Huskies will host Wayne State in the GLIAC Quarterfinals Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the SDC Ticket Office.

Saturday's game will be on Mix 93.5 FM WKMJ radio with the voice of the Huskies, Mitch Lake calling play-by-play for radio and flosports video stream. It is also televised locally on Fox UP with Dave Ellis (play-by-play) and Mark Evans (color commentary). 

SERIES VS. NORTHERN MICHIGAN

• Ellie Mackay posted 19 points and Sara Dax marked her first double-double of the season as Michigan Tech marched to its 12th straight victory over Northern Michigan 69-56 on January 14 at Berry Events Center.
• Isabella Lenz also played important minutes and finished with 14 points and five assists.
• Makaylee Kuhn scored 24 points with eight rebounds and five assists for Northern Michigan.

MACKAY EYES MORE RECORDS

• After surpassing the Michigan Tech all-time career games played record (131), Mackay continues to climb the charts. Her 1,807 career points ranks third behind Katie Wysocky (1,943) and Jenny Postlewaite (1,856).
• This season, Mackay is averaging 13.9 points per game and 3.9 rebounds. The fifth-year senior holds an 87.2 percent career free throw percentage, on pace to surpass Mary Fisher's (1983-87) MTU record 85.3 percentage with 250 makes on 293 tries at the line (minimum 200 attempts).
• Mackay already holds the single-season record for free throw percentage (92.4), though senior Alex Rondorf has converted 47-49 tries this season (95.9 percent) and needs one more trip to the line to qualify (minimum 50 attempts).

DIVISION II STATISTICS

• The Huskies rank third in Division II free throw percentage (80.32) percent). Cedarville (GMAC) leads the nation at 83.99 percent. 
• Tech also ranks ninth in Division II turnovers per game (12.6).

NATIONAL RANKINGS

• For the fourth time this season the Huskies received national votes in this week's WBCA Division II National Rankings poll, released Tuesday.
• Michigan Tech checked in at No. 24 in the nation on February 7.
• It is the only time Tech has garnered a National ranking this season.
• MTU was ranked inside the Top-25 twice last season and six times in 2020-21, topping out at No. 6.

GLIAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK

• Makaylee Kuhn led Northern Michigan to two home wins, 73-67 over Parkside and 65-61 over Purdue Northwest.
• Kuhn averaged 26.5 PPG and 8 RPG while shooting 60% from the floor. She scored a season-high 31 points against the Pride.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS (15-11, 10-7)

• Similar to Michigan Tech, Northern Michigan split with Davenport and Grand Valley State in mid-February, then rebounded at home with wins over Wisconsin Parkside and Purdue Northwest ahead of Saturday's tipoff.
• NMU downed PNW 65-61 at home after Makaylee Kuhn scored a season-high 31 points with seven rebounds and two assists. She moved into ninth place on the NMU all-time scoring chart.
• NMU shot 22-55 (40-percent) from the floor, including 3-7 (42.9-percent) from beyond the arc.
• The Huskies defeated the Wildcats 69-56 at Berry Events Center, marking their 12th straight win in the matchup. 
• Ellie Mackay posted 19 points and Sara Dax marked a double-double.
• Kuhn ranks sixth in the GLIAC in scoring (16.1 ppg) and 11th in assists (2.8 apg). 
• MTU and NMU are stingy defensive teams, but the Wildcats hold a slight edge at 57.0 points allowed per game, 28th best in Division II.
• Casey Thousand is in her first season as head coach. She returned to NMU after serving as assistant coach from 2016-18 and associate head coach in 2018-19.
• Thousand was head women's basketball coach at University of Illinois-Springfield in the three years prior to her return to Northern Michigan. She coached the Prairie Stars to a 17-11 overall record in 2021-22.

THE ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR

• The NCAA Division II women's basketball championship selection show is set for Sunday, March 5 at 10:30 p.m. EST on NCAA.com.
• Before the selection, the committee sits down to fill out the 64-team bracket, 23 conference champions will earn an automatic bid to this year's tournament.
• Eight regionals commence on March 10 to determine this season's DII Elite Eight.
• Those final eight teams will head to the St. Joseph Civic Center in St. Joseph, Mo., from March 20-22 to decide which two teams head to Dallas, Texas to play in the DII National Championship game on April 1.
• Michigan Tech has made 20 NCAA Regional appearances, once under head coach Sam Clayton, and most recently in 2020-21.
• The Huskies were a regional semifinalist and fell 74-65 to Ashland University at O'Reilly Event Center in Springfield, Missouri (Drury University).
• Tech's best run since the program's inception in 1975-76 occurred under head coach Kim Cameron in 2010-11.
• The Huskies finished 31-3 overall, and placed first in the GLIAC North Division and GLIAC Tournament, before making a run to the NCAA Division II title game, where they fell to Clayton State 69-50 at Civic Arena (St. Joseph's, Missouri).
• Sam Clayton was a sophomore at the time and a Division II All-American Honorable Mention selection.

NCAA REGION RANKINGS

• The NCAA released its first Division II Region Rankings on Wednesday (previous weekly rankings published on this site have been from D2SIDA)