Northern Michigan University’s Addison Pytleski, right, puts up this layup past St. Cloud State’s Rachel Kottke during their game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Nov. 20. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

CROOKSTON, Minn. — The women’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University wanted to make sure history repeated itself, even if that history wasn’t quite 24 hours old.

The national No. 18 Wildcats made it two wins in two days at Minnesota-Crookston on Sunday afternoon, this time posting a 78-63 victory a day after winning 89-57 to run their record to 8-1.

The Golden Eagles (1-5) probably saw more than enough of Jacy Weisbrod on Saturday when Northern’s standout senior sharpshooter torched Crookston for a career-high-tying 29 points after making seven 3-pointers.

This time around, she only managed seven points after making just 3 of 6 from the field, including 1 of 4 on triples. But she did post game highs of eight rebounds and three steals while not making a turnover in 26 minutes court time.

Instead, the scoring load was spread around to five of her teammates who each scored between eight and 15 points. Addison Pytleski led the way with 15 points as she hit 3 of 5 triples and 2 of 2 free throws, adding in three rebounds.

Teammate Sarah Newcomer put in 13 points, also hitting three 3s, while Madison Schroeder contributed 12 points in an efficient manner, making 4 of 6 from the field and 4 of 4 free throws, not to mention six rebounds.

Negaunee graduate Alyssa Hill scored 10 points, making 5 of 7 from the field, to go with seven rebounds, while Faith Walder pumped in eight points.

For the second day in a row, NMU’s CJ Romero again led the assist parade with six even as she didn’t score.

And Baraga High School product Reide Osterman saw significant time — 16 minutes — grabbing four rebounds, making an assist and scoring four points.

History repeated itself with the Wildcats turning in a dominant third quarter. A day after outscoring Crookston 21-5 in that period, this time Northern held a 29-16 edge in quarter No. 3 on Sunday.

That was the difference Sunday as the other three quarters were almost even, neither team holding an edge of more than two points in those 10-minute shards of time.

The lead changed hands an incredible 10 times in the first quarter, Crookston coming out on top 17-16 at the end of the period. Only once did either team have more than a one-score lead; that was Northern’s 16-12 edge with 3:47 left on a Schroeder layup.

The second quarter was rather similar even as the lead only changed hands three times. Each team had a four-point lead one time for around 30 seconds, with the Wildcats emerging at halftime with a 32-31 edge.

Then the third quarter happened. Northern jumped out with a 17-2 run to take a 49-33 lead with 5:22 left. In that streak, a half-dozen NMU players took turns hitting buckets — first Newcomer hit a jumper and a triple 30 seconds apart, then Weisbrod made a jumper, followed by Pytleski hitting a jumper and layup just 22 seconds apart.

After that, Walder, Schroder and Osterman made layups each about a minute apart.

Though the Golden Eagles shaved their disadvantage briefly to eight points later in the third, Northern’s lead pretty much remained in double digits the rest of the way, including 61-47 at the end of the third.

NMU’s advantage ranged from 12 to 20 points throughout the fourth, the high-water mark at 76-56 with 3:39 left following a Jordyn Schmittdiel layup.

The Wildcats turn to conference play with a pair of games this week in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. They travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to play Wisconsin-Parkside at 6:30 p.m. EST Thursday, then continue south to Chicago to face Roosevelt at 2 p.m. EST Saturday.

Except for one more nonconference home game against former GLIAC member Northwood on Dec. 17, Northern has nothing but league games remaining on the regular-season docket through the final day of February.

NMU 78, Minn.-Crookston 63

Sunday in Crookston, Minn.

Summary (field goals, free throws, total points)

NORTHERN MICHIGAN — Pytleski 5-2-15, Newcomer 5-0-13, Hill 5-0-10, Weisbrod 3-0-7, Schroeder 4-4-12, Walder 4-0-8, Whitehouse 2-3-7, Osterman 2-0-4, Schmittdiel 1-0-2. Totals 31-9-78.

MINNESOTA-CROOKSTON — Jenkins 5-3-17, Klejeski 4-4-14, Miller 5-2-13, Dudycha 5-0-13, Westby 1-0-2, Winjum 1-0-3, Mahlen 0-1-1. Totals 21-10-63.

Score by quarters:

Northern Michigan 16 16 29 17 — 78

Minn.-Crookston 17 14 16 16 — 63

FG shooting: NMU 31 of 63 (49.2 percent), Minn.-Crookston 21 of 54 (38.9 percent); 3-point shooting: NMU 7 of 21 (33.3 percent), Minn.-Crookston 11 of 22 (50 percent); FT shooting: NMU 9 of 10 (90 percent), Minn.-Crookston 10 of 16 (62.5 percent); Rebounding, NMU 44 (Jacy Weisbrod 8), Minn.-Crookston 23 (Halle Winjum 5); Assists, NMU 11 (CJ Romero 6), Minn.-Crookston 14 (Emma Miller 6); Steals, NMU 6 (Weisbrod 3), Minn.-Crookston 6 (Hope Dudycha 2); Turnovers, NMU 11, Minn.-Crookston 9.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the game. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.