Northern Michigan University’s Max Weisbrod, left, goes up for a layup past Davenport’s Marcedus Leech Jr. at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Jan. 21. (Photo courtesy NMU)

GRAND RAPIDS — Freshman Max Weisbrod set a personal high, season team high and even a season conference high in assists in Northern Michigan University’s 81-64 men’s basketball victory at Davenport on Thursday evening.

The victory brought the Wildcats within a half-game of league leader Wisconsin-Parkside, which had the night off. NMU (18-6 overall) is 10-4 in GLIAC games, joining Ferris State in a tie for second place, while Parkside is just ahead of them at 10-3.

Northern has four games remaining in the regular season, starting with a game at fifth-place Grand Valley State (8-5) in Allendale at 3 p.m. Saturday.

On Thursday, Weisbrod’s 13 assists marked a high by any player in a conference game this season as he also had a solid offensive night with 14 points.

He was 3 of 3 on free throws while also pulling down five rebounds, making two steals and turning the ball over just once in 34 minutes court time.

The NMU offense was led by Max Bjorklund with 19 points, which included three 3-pointers, but he saw his season-long GLIAC scoring lead taken away from right under his nose.

The Panthers’ Marcedus Leech Jr. finished with a game-high 25 points as he also made a trio of 3s to go ahead in the scoring race, 20.3 to 20.1 points per game. Entering the game, they were in a virtual tie at 20.1, with Bjorklund actually leading by about 0.06 of a point.

But Leech has to toil for the league’s last-place team at 2-11 as every other conference squad has at least four league wins.

Bjorklund didn’t have to carry the entire Northern scoring load as four of his teammates also scored in double figures.

In addition to Weisbrod’s 14 points, Dylan Kuehl had 13 and Sam Privet and Sam Schultz 10 apiece.

Kuehl also led NMU rebounders with six even while fouling out with just under four minutes to go.

DU’s only other double-figures scorer was Jordan Sterling with 17 points.

Davenport (6-17 overall) jumped out to an early before Weisbrod hit his first basket with 16:54 left in the first half to make it 7-6 NMU.

By that point, Weisbrod already had two assists, getting the helper on both of Privet’s opening two baskets.

The Wildcats needed less than three minutes to increase their lead to double digits, 19-8, on a Schultz layup with 14:03 to go.

NMU bumped its first-half advantage to as many as 16 points, 42-26, on pair of Kuehl free throws, before settling for a 42-28 halftime cushion.

While Northern needed barely more than three minutes of the second half to pump the lead up to 20, the Panthers had a bit of a comeback left in them.

DU got within a dozen points, 55-43, on a Sterling dunk with 14:06 to go, though NMU started stretching the lead out again.

In the late going, the Wildcats matched the largest lead they had early in the second half of 22 points, 81-59, with 1:44 left on a Carson Smith free throw.

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