DETROIT — The midseason swoon for the Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team continued downstate on Thursday night.

After starting off their season winning eight of their first nine games, the Wildcats’ losing streak was extended to three games as they fell at Wayne State 73-51.

The Wildcats were ice cold all game as they shot just 2 for 19 (11 percent) from beyond the arc and were 18 of 60 (30 percent) overall from the field.

Naba Echols led the Wildcats (8-4, 3-2 GLIAC) with 14 points, while Sam Taylor had 11. WSU’s Darian Owens-White led all scorers with 20.

The Wildcats’ hands may have been cool, but they were fairly efficient in the first half. A trey from Isaiah Johnson and a layup from Echols put NMU up 14-7 with 13:32 left. After the Warriors rallied, Northern got a jumper from Taylor with 6:35 left to take a 19-14 lead, but WSU came back again.

The Warriors took the lead at 25-23 and knocked down a triple before the buzzer to take a 30-27 advantage into halftime.

In the second half, a trey by Echols and a basket from Johnson got the Wildcats within one, 32-31, but that’s the closest NMU got for the rest of the game.

The Warriors took control and built an 18-point lead at 55-37 before Johnson got Northern on the board again with 9:17 left.

NMU will try to end its losing streak Saturday when it travels to No. 10 Ashland.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Ryan Stieg. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.