Both the women and men secured fairly easy road wins at Purdue Northwest in Westville, Indiana, on Thursday before being dealt disappointing defeats at Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, Wisconsin, two days later.

The NMU women (7-8, 4-3 GLIAC) looked dominant against the Pride and performed almost as well against the Rangers, but Parkside hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to take down the Wildcats.

“We played our best basketball this past weekend,” Northern women’s head coach Troy Mattson said. “We haven’t played very well on the road due to a lot of things, but we talked about it a lot and we concentrated on it.

“We’ve played fairly well at home and we actually played our two best basketball games. We played really well against Purdue Northwest, we just shut them down completely. They had nowhere to go with their offense and I was really proud the way the girls played. We got the ball inside to Jessica (Schultz) and Erin (Honkala), where it needs to go every single time we go down the court, and we played well.

“We went to Parkside and got off to a great start against the best team in the North (Division). Actually, at one point in the second quarter, we had an 18-point lead. We weren’t expecting that.

“We knew they’d come back a little bit, but they have a great player (Alyssa Nelson). She just took over the game in the third quarter and got them back in the game and actually gave them the lead.

“The girls fought back and we got the game tied up with about 12 or 13 seconds left in the game. Liz Lutz made another big 3 for us. Erin steals the inbounds pass and we’re going to get the last shot of the game.

“We think the worst-case scenario is we’re going to overtime and our freshman Makaylee Kuhn made a great play. Got to about three or four feet and had a little runner off the glass. It came off the glass, off the front of the rim and didn’t go. And then all kind of crazy things happened.

“They actually could not advance the ball because their point guard grabbed the rebound and dribbled it out toward half-court. I didn’t see it happen, to tell the truth, and the referees advanced the ball. They made one pass and made a shot and the game was over with 1.5 (seconds left).

“When you go on the road and you play that well, you’ve got to feel good about the way you played. Unfortunately, we got a loss in that second one, but who knows, we could’ve lost in overtime too.

“I’m excited the way we’ve looked the last couple nights out, the last three games. We’ve played our best basketball and hopefully, we can continue to do those types of things.”

The NMU men (7-8, 4-3 GLIAC) looked just as good as the women against Purdue Northwest, but things got away from them against Parkside to end the Wildcats’ winning streak at three.

“I just thought we did a really good job of attacking (the Pride) pressure and they pressure harder than probably most of the teams we’ve played all year,” Northern men’s head coach Matt Majkrzak said. “We hadn’t seen that before and it bothered me a little bit going into it, and I think instead of having their pressure bother us, I think we did a good job of taking advantage of it and getting easy ones.

“It was the first game where I thought we really just attacked downhill the whole game rather than looking to shoot. They respected our 3-point shooting, so we just made it more about getting to the rim and some 3s followed.

“We just didn’t have it (against Parkside). We were, defensively, we were a step slow the whole game and we hadn’t played a motion team in a while and we just didn’t seem to be ready and prepared to guard them the way we had been every other game in the conference.

“Going into that, we were first in the league in defensive field goal percentage, and upped their rebounding and we kind of lost our way a little bit in that one. For whatever reason, we just weren’t ready the way we’ve been in the other games.”

Now the Wildcats are back at the Berry Events Center and both teams will need to be ready as they fight for positioning while trying to lock down berths in the GLIAC Tournament. The NMU women are tied for second in the North Division with their Thursday opponent, Ferris State (10-5, 4-3), and will take on a struggling Lake Superior State (6-8, 2-5) squad Saturday.

“Same game plan we’ve had the past three or four nights,” Mattson said. “They’re (the Bulldogs) gonna fast break and go as fast as they can go and we’re gonna go as slow as we can go.

“They’ve got great guards and what I’m hoping, we’ve got good inside players. We’re gonna give it to our inside players and say ‘Go get them.’ We’ve got to keep them out of transition and getting into open areas where they can get the ball to the rim on us with their guards.

“It’s not much different than what we’ve seen the last four nights. Hopefully, we’ll continue to produce in the post and our shooters must be ready, because teams aren’t going to sit here and let Jessica continue to do what she’s doing. They’re going to start double-teaming her even more than she was, but one thing about Jessica is she’s a great passer and our offense revolves around that.

“I’m not afraid if they double, it actually helps us out sometimes when our shooters are making shots, it actually helps us out when they double Jessica because she’s a great passer and it allows our guards to score then.”

The NMU men have a more difficult task on their hands as the FSU men (17-2, 6-1) won a national championship two years ago and appear primed to make a run at it again. LSSU can’t be overlooked, either, as the Lakers (6-9, 3-4) are one game behind the Wildcats in the North Division.

Majkrzak said both will be tough opponents.

“They’re (the Bulldogs) really good,” Majkrzak said. “They have national championship aspirations and they should. They press and their pressure, they force 16 or 17 turnovers a game, which is first in the league and it’s probably pretty high nationally. We’re second in the league in not turning it over.

“If we’re going to have a chance in that one, we’re going to have to take care of the ball and not let them get anything easy and make it into a game where at least it’s basketball and not them having the ball and getting steals because the way they play is unlike anything we’ve seen, and unlike, really, most teams in the country. They have a really unique style where they’re just pressuring you full court the whole game and kind of waiting for you to crack.

“They’re (the Lakers) really tough. They’re really well coached and they’re really, really tough. They play harder than anyone in the league does. That’s kind of what they hang their hat on. They have very good movement on offense and then defensively, they pressure you as well. So the nice part is I think Ferris will prepare us (with) the most pressure, and hopefully that helps us a little bit against Lake State’s pressure.

“(LSSU) defensively, runs a lot of different defenses. They kind of try to confuse you both offensively and defensively by doing some kind of odd things and some different things. So it’s going to be a game where we have to kind of, again, not get rattled.

“It’s going to be a big weekend for composure and us just kind of staying the course. Playing basketball and not letting kind of the uniqueness of either opponent change the way we play because at the end of the day, we’re still trying to throw the ball around and put it in the hoop.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.