Northern Michigan University’s Troy Summers goes up for a basket against Lake Superior State’s Ashton Sherrell on Jan. 18 at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. (Journal file photo by Amy Grigas)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team is going through an up-and-down stretch right now.

The Wildcats (10-11, 7-6 GLIAC) had won three in a row heading into last week, including a road upset of then-No. 11 Grand Valley State.

However, on last week’s road trip, NMU was handed a close loss by Saginaw Valley State and then another defeat by Northwood. The ‘Cats fell behind in the first half against the Cardinals on Thursday and almost completed a comeback win, but against the Timberwolves, things just kind of fell apart in the second half.

If there was a true positive that came out of the week, it’s that senior guard Sam Taylor scored his 1,000th career point as a Wildcat.

“It’s kind of the highs and lows of sports,” Northern head coach Matt Majkrzak said Tuesday. “We’ve had a few of them this year, but that’s a pretty good example where you go 2-0 against two of the best teams in the league and then play two teams that are still solid, middle-of-the-road teams on the road and you go 0-2.

“Which in some ways, it’s not expected, but it’s not earth-shattering. But when you have that high the previous week, you’re like ‘We just need to find a way to kind of get one and continue to have momentum.’ It’s frustrating not to be able to do that.

“Honestly, I have two very different feelings about the games. I thought Saginaw, we thought we were probably better and I thought we came out not the way we needed to and a bunch of stuff happens.

“That game was very frustrating to not win, and at the same time, in the second half against Saginaw, was as well as we’ve played all year. I was amazed at how they were able to kind of dig down deep and find a way to fight all the way back against a really good team with a bunch of Division I transfers.

“For us to be able to outplay them the way we did in the second half was probably as impressive as anything we’ve done all year and it’s frustrating it ended in a loss. But there were a lot of positives to take away from, especially in the second half that night.

“That would be one, you never like saying this or doing this, but that would be one you chalk up to four games in a row on the road (at Northwood). Our five starters played all 20 minutes in the second half at Saginaw. We tried our best to get their legs back, everything we could do within that 24- to 48-hour window that we had.

“But I just didn’t think we had it in the second half. The first half we played well. Again, we didn’t have our normal energy, but I thought we played well. In some ways, I think we lost the game in the first half only being up two because we very easily could’ve been up eight to 10 points and maybe then we could’ve just found a way to grind it out in the second half.

“But I thought our legs were pretty shot. Myles (Howard) was in foul trouble and if Myles is in foul trouble, and we don’t have our legs, and then we had two guys get hurt within the game on top of Troy, it just felt like one of those typical road games where you have all these things kind of stack up and it’s why even really good teams don’t win them all.”

As disappointing as those losses were, Northern had a good chance to bounce back this weekend as it returns home to take on Wisconsin-Parkside (10-11, 6-7) Thursday and Purdue Northwest (7-14, 2-11) Saturday.

The Wildcats are in third place in the GLIAC North Division and are up by a game on both Parkside and Lake Superior State. NMU is also behind Michigan Tech by one game for second place, so this weekend is a great opportunity for the ‘Cats to both gain ground and create separation between them and the Rangers, who roll into town on a four-game skid.

“Big game for us (against Parkside),” Majkrzak said. “Obviously, standings-wise, it’s a big game, but then also I know that’s still probably the most bitter taste we’ve had in our mouth all year. Even including the Ripon thing, I would say.

“Parkside’s the game that was the most frustrating for us as a group. It’s the one game in conference we just really weren’t ready for. We got pounced on pretty early against a team that I think is similar to us in a lot of ways.

“So I know our guys are excited for a chance to play them again and we got to adjust a lot of the things we did the first time.”

Northern tips off against Parkside at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and 1 p.m. Saturday against PNW.

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