Northern Michigan University junior Ben Wolf gets in a defensive stance along with several teammates during a game played earlier this season at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. (Photo courtesy NMU)

By Journal Sports Staff

MARQUETTE — A pair of seniors had big nights on Senior Day for the Northern Michigan University’s men’s basketball team as the Wildcats won their fifth straight game in a 88-62 victory over visiting Saginaw Valley State.

Improving to 14-11 overall and 10-8 in the GLIAC, NMU remained in a tie for fifth place with Grand Valley State. They are in the middle of a crowd of five teams separated by two games. Lake Superior State and SVSU are tied for third at 11-7, while Wisconsin-Parkside is seventh at 9-9.

Northern senior Nick Wagner led all scorers with 22 points, including shooting nearly 50 percent on 3-pointers, 6 of 13, while making both of his free throw attempts.

Fellow Wildcats senior John Kerr not only was second-high scorer with 18 points, but surpassed the 2,000-point collegiate mark. Not only did Kerr make 8 of 9 shots, including his only 3-point try, but pulled down an astounding 14 rebounds.

Teammate Max Bjorklund added 12 points, including a pair of 3s and 4 of 4 on free throws as the Wildcats made 13 of 15 at the line overall.

Another NMU player, Justin Brookens, dished out a game-high seven assists to go with eight points.

Delano Smith and Tre Garrett paced the Cardinals with 15 points apiece, while Tyler Witz had nine points and 10 rebounds.

Even though James Toohey hit a triple in the first 65 seconds to give SVSU an early 3-2 lead, the Wildcats took control pretty quickly after that, going on a 12-0 run to go up 14-3 with 15:49 left in the first half on a traditional three-point play by Kerr.

NMU kept running the Cardinals defense ragged until it established a 46-22 halftime advantage, the final points coming on a Justin Kuehl jumper with six seconds left.

The Wildcats’ second-half lead never fell below 20 points and hit its high-water mark of 33 points, 74-41, with 7:46 left on a Bjorklund triple.

The Wildcats have a chance to grab a top-four home-playoff berth for the first round of the GLIAC Tournament with two final regular-season games, both on the road this week. NMU is at Lake Superior State at 7:30 p.m. Thursday before heading further south to play at Ferris State at 3 p.m. Saturday.

The GLIAC quarterfinal round is scheduled for campus sites on Wednesday evening.

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