Northern Michigan University’s Sam Schultz, right, puts up a short jumper while defended by Northwood’s Matthew Nowicki at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Jan. 29, 2022. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

At home: Wildcats’ next home game is at the Berry Events Center against Michigan Tech at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 14; TV: WLUC-TV6 or Fox-U.P.; Radio: WUPT 100.3 FM The Point

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MIDLAND — Freshmen led the way for the Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team on Monday as the Wildcats ripped Northwood 81-52 in a nonconference game played at the Timberwolves’ gym.

Northwood was a longtime member of the GLIAC until this school year.

NMU true freshman Max Weisbrod led all scorers with 21 points, while redshirt frosh Dylan Kuehl added 16, true freshman Najashi Tolefree had 15 and redshirt freshman Jackson Dudek put in 13.

Leading GLIAC scorer and league Preseason Player of the Year Max Bjorklund of the Wildcats wasn’t available, nor was teammate and NMU’s No. 2 scorer, Brian Parzych.

Anthony Sanders paced Northwood (1-14) with 12 points.

After Northern (11-3) jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the game’s first 2 1/2 minutes, the Wildcats quickly extended their advantage to double digits, 16-5, following a 3-pointer by Weisbrod with 13:12 left in the first half.

They upped their lead to 20, 32-12, on another Weisbrod 3 with 6:30 to go before halftime and were up 41-19 at the intermission.

NMU’s lead never slipped below 20 points in the second half as Northern twice got the lead to 36, the first time at 67-31 with 9:15 remaining on a Kuehl triple.

The Wildcats shot nearly 50% — 49.2% on 32 of 65 shooting — held a 40-27 rebounding advantage and committed just six turnovers.

Dudek and Sam Schultz, who scored eight points, led NMU rebounders with seven apiece, while Weisbrod had six assists and Schultz three steals.

The Wildcats jump back into GLIAC play later this week with road games at Wayne State in Detroit at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and at Saginaw Valley State in University Center at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Northern’s next home game is against Michigan Tech at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 14.

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