Northern Michigan University’s Max Weisbrod, left, dribbles around Minnesota State-Moorhead’s Gabe Myren during their game played at the PEIF gym in Marquette on Nov. 25. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — Luckily for the Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team, the Wildcats had Max Weisbrod on their side last week.

The 6-foot-4 sophomore guard had not one, but two clutch performances in the waning seconds of NMU’s pair of GLIAC victories at the Berry Events Center that extended Northern’s winning streak to nine games.

For his feats, the DeForest, Wisconsin, native was named the GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week.

Weisbrod hit the game-winning shot in a 72-71 victory over Lake Superior State on Thursday that didn’t go through the hoop until after the final buzzer sounded. Not long before that, he sank two 3-pointers to set up the game clincher.

Two days later against nationally ranked No. 12 Ferris State, he made three of four free throws in the late going, then hit a triple with 14 seconds left to lock up the Wildcats’ 75-71 win. His six points in the final two minutes was the major part of Northern’s 8-0 run to end the game.

Between the two games, he scored 14 points in the final two minutes as part of his 43-point two-game total.

In the LSSU game, he finished with a game-high 25 points, making 9 of 14 (64%) overall from the field, including 6 of 9 (67%) on 3s, then adding in two assists and two rebounds.

Against Ferris, his 18 points was also the game high as he made another three triples along with 9 of 12 free throws. He added in three rebounds and a game-high five assists.

For the season, Weisbrod is one of four NMU players with a scoring average in double figures as he’s No. 2 on the team and No. 8 in the GLIAC at 14.7 points per game. He’s also averaging 4.3 assists per game to rank third in the league and has 3.6 rebounds each contest.

He leads Northern in minutes played at 33.4 per game, and he also has a team-leading 46 treys made out of 126, a 36.5% success rate.

The 13-5 Wildcats are 6-0 in the conference and have a game-and-a-half lead on 4-1 Grand Valley State. They hit the road for a Lake Michigan-area trip this week, going to Hammond, Indiana, to face Purdue Northwest at 8:30 p.m. EST Thursday, then start heading back north to play in Kenosha, Wisconsin, against Wisconsin-Parkside at 4 p.m. EST Saturday.

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