WESTVILLE, Ind. — This season has been an up-and-down ride for the Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team.

The Wildcats went into the holiday break with back-to-back losses, then started the second half last week with two home wins over Ashland and Wayne State. Saturday’s game stood out as NMU made 11 3-pointers against the Warriors and that that hot shooting continued Thursday against Purdue Northwest.

The Wildcats made eight triples with Sam Taylor hitting a career-high five as they extended their win streak to three with an 81-67 win over the Pride.

Taylor led Northern (7-7, 4-2 GLIAC) with a season-high 23 points, while Troy Summers added a career-high 21.

Taylor scored the Wildcats’ first eight points and an Alec Fruin trey helped give NMU an 11-2 lead just over three minutes in.

The Pride (6-8, 1-5) whittled Northern’s lead to two, but the ‘Cats answered back, going up 23-14 on a bucket by Justin Kuehl. PNW cut its deficit to five at one point, but NMU wasn’t deterred as it took a 40-28 lead into halftime.

The Pride didn’t go away, though, as they pulled within four, 45-41, less than four minutes into the second half. However, Northern stayed strong and eventually got its advantage back up to double digits and held on to close out the win.

NMU heads to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to face Wisconsin-Parkside at 4 p.m. EST Saturday.

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