On Tuesday, the Wildcats tried to restart that path again, but were stopped in their tracks at Wisconsin-Parkside as NMU’s season came to an end with an 80-67 loss.

Jessica Schultz led Northern (13-16, 10-10 GLIAC) with 19 points in her final game as a Wildcat.

Freshman Makaylee Kuhn and sophomore Elena Alaix added 13 each while senior Erin Honkala had 12 to go with a game-high 11 rebounds.

Alaix had a team-high four assists while Schultz had Northern’s only three blocked shots.

Erin Honkala

In the first quarter, NMU jumped out to an 11-4 lead on a triple by Alaix, then led by seven points again at 15-8 thanks to layup from Honkala.

But the Rangers (16-13, 12-8) got their deficit down to two with 1:31 left on a layup by Taylor Stephen. The Wildcats led 20-17 after one quarter.

Parkside opened the second with an 8-0 run to take a 25-20 lead. NMU tied the score twice in the quarter before retaking the lead with 2:06 left on a layup from sophomore Emily Mueller.

A three-point play by Honkala got Northern’s advantage up to five with 51 seconds left at 39-34, but the Rangers got it down to three at 39-36 by halftime.

A layup from former Marquette Redette and junior Amber Huebner and a jumper from Schultz reasserted the Wildcats to a 46-39 advantage before the Rangers got hot as they busted loose on a 17-0 run.

They tied the score with 4:18 left, took the lead with 3:37 remaining on a bucket by Alyssa Nelson, and built it their lead to 10 at 56-46 with 1:20 left with two free throws from Alisha Murphy. Parkside led 58-51 going into the fourth.

The Rangers continued to roll as they built their advantage back to double digits.

NMU cut its deficit to eight twice, on two free throws from Schultz at 68-60 with 3:40 left and again on a triple from Huebner with 1:57 left, to make the score 73-65. But that was as close as the Wildcats could get.

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