Northern Michigan University’s Max Bjorklund, right, works his way around Saginaw Valley State’s Chansey Willis Jr. during their GLIAC basketball game played at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Feb. 2. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team can start to show that oh-so-close wasn’t good enough as the Wildcats host a first-round GLIAC Tournament game on Wednesday afternoon.

The No. 3-seeded Wildcats host No. 6 Saginaw Valley State at 5:30 p.m. at the Berry Events Center. It’s the early half of a men’s-women’s doubleheader, both NMU-SVSU matchups coincidentally, in the conference tourney.

While coming in at No. 3, NMU missed a share of the conference regular-season title by a single win, finishing at 13-5 in league games and 21-7 overall. Wisconsin-Parkside, which the Wildcats bludgeoned 73-47 at home less than two weeks ago, won the outright conference title at 14-4 as Ferris State shared the runner-up spot with the Wildcats at 13-5.

Ferris won the tiebreaker for the No. 2 seed, which could become important if Parkside were to lose in its Wednesday quarterfinal.

That’s because the highest remaining seed after the opening round gets to host the semifinals on Saturday and finals on Sunday.

NMU would need both Parkside and Ferris to lose at home Wednesday to earn that right.

The other quarterfinals, all also Wednesday, have No. 8 Michigan Tech at No. 1 Parkside, No. 7 Purdue Northwest at No. 2 Ferris and No. 5 Grand Valley State at No. 4 Lake Superior State.

SVSU enters Wednesday at an even .500 — 14-14 overall and 9-9 in the GLIAC.

Fans can follow these Wildcats at @NMUMensBBALL and @NMU_Wildcats on Twitter, or visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com under the men’s basketball schedule for links to audio, video, live statistics and pregame information.

The game will be broadcast on radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.

On Saturday, the Wildcats struggled through the first half and into early in the second half before finishing strong for a 65-57 victory at Michigan Tech. Northern trailed for most of the early part of the game and was down by 11 points not long after halftime.

But a 22-9 run to end the game gave them the eight-point victory and a shot at a share of the conference title, which would have come to be if Parkside had joined Ferris in losing Saturday.

Senior Max Bjorklund and redshirt freshman Dylan Kuehl each scored 15 points at MTU, matching the high-water mark of Tech’s Dan Gherezerger. Northern’s Max Weisbrod added 13 points as Kuehl pulled down a huge 15 rebounds.

NMU is the No. 2 scoring offense in the GLIAC at 80.8 points per game. Only Ferris at 86.9 ppg is ahead of the Wildcats, who are more than 4 1/2 ppg ahead of the rest of the league. And the continually improving Northern defense now ranks in a tie for No. 3 at 70.8 ppg, only behind Wayne State and Parkside.

These young Wildcats have the lowest turnover rate in the conference at 9.9 a game, also ranking them eighth in NCAA Division II, and have a plus-6.9 rebound rate per game, tops in the league, while allowing opponents just 7.1 offensive rebounds, also best in the conference.

Bjorklund, who was the GLIAC Preseason Player of the Year, recently moved back as the No. 1 scorer in the conference after giving that distinction away for a week or two to Davenport’s Marcedes Leech Jr. Bjorklund is now at 20.3 ppg as Leech is at 20.0 and no other GLIAC player is even at 19.0 ppg. He’s had 13 straight double-digit scoring games and at least 15 points in his last eight contests and at least 22 in three of his last four.

Kuehl is at 13.0 ppg and has taken over the No. 1 rebounding position in the conference at 6.9 per contest, a tenth of a rebound ahead of Grand Valley State’s Marius Grazulis, a Marquette Senior High School graduate.

Kuehl also shoots at a 56.1% rate on field goals, No. 2 in the league and No. 2 among all Division II freshmen.

Weisbrod has a 12.0 ppg and 5.1 assist-per-game average, the latter number also No. 2 in the GLIAC and No. 2 among D-II frosh. Additionally, he’s making 45.9% on his 3-pointers, fifth best in the conference.

SVSU has won three of its last five, though it’s coming off a 73-65 loss to Parkside to end the regular season. The Cardinals’ Freddie McIntosh averages 16.0 ppg with Tre Garrett at 15.0 ppg.

NMU swept Saginaw Valley this season, winning 71-68 at University Center on Jan. 7 and 81-64 in Marquette on Feb. 2.

In the most recent game, Weisbrod scored 20 points to lead four NMU players scoring in double digits. Kuehl had 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Bjorklund added 17 points and Jackson Dudek 12. McIntosh led the Cards with 26 points.

NMU led almost the entire way, dominating the boards 41-26.

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