Northern Michigan University’s Charlie Miller, left, goes up for a shot during a college men’s basketball game played against Minnesota-Duluth at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Nov. 29. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

CHICAGO — After discovering his shooting touch on Thursday, Cal Klesmit found some kindred spirits two days later as the men’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University bombed in an 85-64 victory at Roosevelt.

Klesmit scored a career-high 30 points in a narrow 82-78 win at Wisconsin-Parkside on Thursday before he pumped in another 20 points on Saturday at the game played in Chicago.

Klesmit, a sophomore guard, sizzled with his shooting touch again vs. Roosevelt, making 5 of 7 3-pointers and 6 of 10 shots from the field overall, adding in a 3-for-3 performance at the free-throw line.

But he wasn’t the only Wildcat knocking down shots. Charlie Miller also made five triples and 2 of 2 free throws for 17 points, while Jackson Dudek added four treys and another 2-for-2 day at the charity stripe for 16 more points.

All their scoring took the pressure off regular No. 1 NMU scorer Dylan Kuehl, who still managed 11 points, making the only 3 he tried while grabbing six rebounds and dishing out four assists.

Klesmit actually was quite a stats stuffer, adding in game highs of eight rebounds and seven assists.

Miller had five assists and three rebounds, while Dudek also had four rebounds. Teammate Trevor Polite only scored four points, but he dished out six assists and grabbed four rebounds.

And the Wildcats’ Sam Privet contributed 10 points.

Led by the top scoring trio, Northern made exactly 50% on triples (16 of 32), also managing just over 50% overall from the field (31 of 61).

NMU is 2-0 in the GLIAC after a successful road trip south and is 6-1 overall, while Roosevelt slipped to 0-2 and 0-6.

The Lakers’ top scorer was Mikey West with 18 points.

Despite the fairly easy victory, Roosevelt led throughout the game’s first seven minutes, its biggest advantage 9-4 with 16:39 remaining.

But following a Miller triple and Polite jumper, NMU got its first lead, 12-11, with 13:19 left in the opening half.

After Roosevelt briefly took the lead back, Northern took the lead for good, 17-16, when Sam Privet put in a layup with 11:12 left in the first half.

They insured they would keep the lead with a 13-0 run that ended with an Allen trey with 1:31 left that made it 41-27.

Still ahead 41-31 at halftime, the Wildcats’ lead was whittled to four points, 41-37, with 18:19 left on a West triple.

Though they never came close to relinquishing the lead, NMU wasn’t able to consistently get it back into double digits until Klesmit hit a 3 with 8:01 left that made it 66-54.

Once they got it back to 10, their edge quickly expanded to more than 20, 76-54, with 4:17 to go on another Klesmit triple.

Northern has two more nonconference games at its Vandament Arena before a trip off the U.S. mainland just before Christmas.

The Wildcats host Concordia, Wisconsin, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Marian, Wisconsin, at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Then NMU heads to Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Clasico with three games in three days against teams from the U.S. commonwealth, vs. Interamericana on Dec. 18, vs. Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras on Dec. 19 and vs. PR-Bayamon on Dec. 20.

NMU 85, Roosevelt 64

Saturday at Chicago

Summary (field goals, free throws, total points)

NORTHERN MICHIGAN — Klesmit 6-3-20, Miller 5-2-17, Dudek 5-2-16, Kuehl 5-0-11, Polite 2-0-4, Privet 5-0-10, Robertson 2-0-4, Allen 1-0-3. Totals 31-7-85.

ROOSEVELT — West 6-2-18, Taylor 7-0-16, Yaklich 5-0-11, Smith-Johnson 3-1-8, Windham 3-0-7, Kleinsmith 1-0-3, Saywer 0-1-1. Totals 25-4-64.

Halftime score: NMU 41-31

FG shooting: NMU 31 of 61 (50.8 percent), Roosevelt 25 of 53 (47.2 percent); 3-point shooting: NMU 16 of 32 (50 percent), Roosevelt 10 of 24 (41.7 percent); FT shooting: NMU 7 of 8 (87.5 percent), Roosevelt 4 of 7 (57.1 percent); Rebounding, NMU 32 (Cal Klesmit 8), Roosevelt 23 (Griffin Yaklich 6); Assists, NMU 25 (Klesmit 7), Roosevelt 11 (Yaklich 3); Steals, NMU 4 (4 players with 1 each), Roosevelt 4 (4 players with 1 each); Turnovers, NMU 7, Roosevelt 10.

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.