BIG RAPIDS — The season is winding down for the Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team and it’s running out of time to get into the GLIAC postseason tournament.

In January, the Wildcats were in contention to host a first-round GLIAC Tournament game, but that possibility is gone now, vanished with a tough 71-68 loss at No. 13 Ferris State on Saturday. The loss to the league’s No. 1 team was Northern’s fifth setback in its last six games.

Sam Taylor led NMU with 21 points, while three other Wildcats finished in double figures — Ben Wolf had 14, Alec Fruin 13 and Myles Howard 12.

Taylor, who hit four 3-pointers, also had game highs of seven assists and five steals to go with four rebounds, while Wolf made a pair of triples, three steals, three rebounds and two blocked shots. Fruin, who put in four treys, had three rebounds and two assists, while Howard, not known as a scorer, hit a pair of 3-pointers and all four of his free-throw attempts to go with a team-high six rebounds. Howard also had three assists and two blocks.

NMU (11-14, 8-9) sits in a three-way tie with Saginaw Valley State and Lake Superior State for the tourney’s seventh playoff spot. With eight teams making the field, that means only two of those three would get in if the event started today.

Each GLIAC team has three games remaining, and all of the Wildcats’ are at home as they host current No. 2 seed Grand Valley State at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, No. 3 Davenport at 1 p.m. Saturday and Upper Peninsula rival and No. 4 Michigan Tech at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27.

Northern and Ferris (24-5, 13-4 GLIAC) went back and forth in the first half before a jumper by Taylor and two triples from Fruin helped Northern build up a 28-20 lead with 8:09 left before halftime.

NMU eventually got its lead up to double digits at 43-33 on a layup by Wolf with 1:42 left. However, the Bulldogs whittled it down to five at the break, 43-38.

Ferris jumped out quickly to start the second half, taking a 44-43 lead on a Walt Kelser triple with 18:46 left as the teams started trading baskets.

Then the Bulldogs went on a run to go up 70-63 on a triple by Kelser with 2:06 remaining.

However, the Wildcats clawed their way back and pulled within two at 70-68 on two free throws from Howard with 10 seconds left. Kelser made a free throw to extend Ferris’ lead to three, but he missed his second attempt and Taylor snared the rebound in time for one last attempt to tie, but Fruin’s 3-pointer didn’t go through the net and the Wildcats fell short.

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