Dolapo Olayinka

BIG RAPIDS — Ferris State broke open a close game with a 30-8 run to start the second half en route to a 67-45 victory over Northern Michigan University in a GLIAC men’s basketball game played Saturday afternoon.

The Wildcats, now 3-2 both overall and in the league, didn’t help themselves with poor second-half shooting, making just 28 percent from the field (7 of 25), including 0 of 7 on 3-pointers.

The performance followed Friday’s 67-59 victory in Big Rapids over the same Bulldogs.

On Saturday, no NMU player scored in double figures as starters Dolapo Olayinka and Ben Wolf led Northern with eight points apiece, while reserves Tre Harvey, Carson Smith and Sam Schultz added seven points each.

Olayinka also had a team-high seven rebounds to go with two assists, two steals and no turnovers in 30 minutes on the court.

Ferris, meanwhile, made 54 percent of its second-half shots (13 of 24), including 6 of 10 triples. Walt Kelser led all scorers with 15 points, including four 3s, while the Bulldogs’ Mason Pline had 10 points and Marquette Senior High School graduate Vejas Grazulis added nine points, two rebounds, two steals, two blocked shots and an assist in just 15 minutes playing time.

Grazulis, a sophomore, is a transfer from Muskegon Community College after being a member of the NMU team for a year. He scored four points and grabbed three rebounds in 12 minutes during Friday’s game.

The Wildcats led for a majority of the first half, attaining its biggest lead of 13-7 with 14:18 left on a pair of free throws by Schultz.

Ferris (4-5, 3-3) caught NMU at 20-20 with 9:16 left on a dunk by Logan Ryan. The rest of the first half was a one-possession game, ending with the Bulldogs holding a 27-26 lead at intermission.

Though Ferris never relinquished the lead in the second half, Northern was down just 33-30 with 15:26 left on a free throw by Harvey.

But FSU scored 24 points in the next eight minutes to blow the game open and take a 57-34 lead. Northern never got closer than 15 points the rest of the way as neither team scored in the final 2 1/2 minutes.

The NMU men return home for three games this week. The Wildcats hosts Michigan Tech at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the PEIF gym before taking on Lake Superior State at 1 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

The MTU game will be televised by Fox-U.P., while all NMU games are broadcast on radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.