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Dolapo Olayinka, Sam Taylor not enough to avert Northern Michigan University men’s basketball loss at home to Ripon

Dolapo Olayinka

MARQUETTE — Senior Sam Taylor and sophomore Dolapo Olayinka came off the bench to lead Northern Michigan University in scoring, but the Wildcats dropped a nonconference game to NCAA Division III Ripon 80-75 on Saturday afternoon.

Taylor and Olayinka each scored 15 points as Olayinka made three 3-pointers and Taylor made one.

Olayinka also pulled down 10 rebounds, second in the game only to senior teammate Myles Howard’s 12 as each had their first double-doubles of the season.

Taylor had far and away the most steals with five, adding three rebounds.

NMU (4-7) senior Marcus Matelski contributed 12 points, Howard had 11, junior Alec Fruin 10 and freshman Noah Parcher nine. Parcher also had a team-high four assists.

Sam Taylor

Ripon (5-4) was paced offensively by Seth Kostroski with 16 points, including four 3-pointers, Ryan Steffes with 15 and Trent Jones 14.

The visiting Red Hawks outshot Northern in all phases — overall, Ripon made 55 percent (27 of 49) vs. NMU’s 43 percent (31 of 72), while on 3-pointers, the Hawks made 58 percent (11 of 19) vs. the Wildcats’ 33 percent (10 of 30).

At the free-throw line, Ripon hit at 79 percent (15 of 19) to just 27 percent (3 of 11) for NMU.

The teams traded the lead throughout th

e first half, with no lead bigger than five points as Ripon held a 35-34 edge at halftime.

The Red Hawks maintained a small lead for the first seven minutes of the second half until Northern tied it 46-46 on a Taylor layup with 12:41 left.

NMU took its first lead of the second half at 53-52 when Parcher hit a 3-pointer with 9:19 to go, upping its lead to four points on two occasions.

But Ripon went on a 10-0 run over less than two minutes to go ahead 67-61 with four minutes left on a Theune free throw. The Red Hawks never relinquished that lead, going ahead by as many as seven points down the stretch.

The Wildcats return to GLIAC action at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2, when they host Ashland at the Berry Events Center. NMU also has a home game against Wayne State at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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