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MARQUETTE — It took a little longer than expected, but the Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team found its groove Friday afternoon.

After dealing with an upset-minded Purdue Northwest team all game, the Wildcats pulled away in the fourth quarter and emerged with a 73-61 win. Makaylee Kuhn had a big game for NMU, finishing with 34 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Northern also shot 50% from the field and 46% from beyond the arc, which left head coach Troy Mattson in a good mood in the postgame Zoom press conference, though he felt that his team needed to be better defensively if it wants to finish the sweep this afternoon.

Northern Michigan University's Makaylee Kuhn, left, sends a pass over to teammate Elena Alaix, top right, as Purdue Northwest's Brittany Barnard, center, and Danielle Nennig converge during the fourth quarter of their GLIAC basketball game played at the PEIF gym in Marquette on Friday. (Journal photo by Ryan Stieg)

“Offensively, I thought we did a real good job,” he said. “Fifty percent from the field, almost 50 percent from the 3-point line, 21 of 24 from the free-throw line, only 10 turnovers, and it felt like we were in trouble the whole time.

“Their guards are really talented. Savaya Brockington is one of the hardest two or three people in this league to guard and she just gave us fits all night long until the fourth quarter. We kind of were able to get to her a little bit, but defensively, we were not quite as sharp as I was hoping that we would be.

“But again, you’ve got to credit her. She just puts so much pressure on you and (Anjel) Galbraith is a really good point guard, too, and they just really put the pressure on you.

“Fortunately, in the fourth quarter we kind of buckled down and did a little better job with both of them, but that’s going to have to be a constant (today) for four quarters.”

The Wildcats held a 15-8 lead during the first quarter, but the Pride rallied to tie it on a layup by Brockington with 1:27 left. Northern took a 20-18 lead into the second quarter when Kuhn beat the buzzer on a driving layup.

In the second, PNW grabbed its first lead since its opening basket on a 3-pointer by Julie Fitzwater at 23-21 with 8:07 remaining and pushed its advantage to seven at 30-23 on a jumper by Brittany Barnard. However, NMU chipped away and tied it 30-30 on a layup by Kuhn with 52 seconds left. She also made two free throws with two seconds left to give the ‘Cats a 34-33 lead at the break.

The game stayed tight through the third quarter. Northern held a 47-41 advantage on two free throws from Taya Stevenson, but PNW rallied to cut its deficit to one on a three-point play by Galbraith with 43 seconds left. Kuhn came through again though for the ‘Cats, sinking two free throws a few seconds later to get them back ahead 53-51 heading into the fourth.

NMU caught fire after that. The Wildcats went on an 11-0 run, capped off by a Kuhn layup, to get their biggest lead at 69-55 with 3:52 left.

Mattson has been concerned about the Wildcats’ passing recently and said it got better against the Pride.

“When you only turn it over 10 times and you’re getting shots, you’ve got to feel pretty comfortable about it,” he said. “We made some really good passes out of the post when they double-teamed us, but a lot of times they didn’t double-team us and they were told that we had to score 1-on-1 down there.

“We struggled in the first half. I thought they did a good job putting

Barnard, who’s about 6-foot-2 or 6-foot-3, on Makaylee and gave her some issues down there and then we made the adjustment to pull her out and set ball screens on her and Makaylee, again, was able to get around them and make plays.

“Again, offensively, I feel comfortable about what happened out there, but the defensive end is going to have to be better and then I think we would’ve put a complete game together.”

The Wildcats will close out the regular season at 1 p.m. today in the PEIF.

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

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