Northern Michigan University’s Sydney Whitehouse, center, is double-teamed by Davenport's Maddie Gears, left, and Tangee Gagau and gets fouled as she drives to the basket during their GLIAC game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Friday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The battle to stay among conference leaders in women’s basketball heats up this afternoon when a pair of third-place teams, Northern Michigan University and Michigan Tech, meet up at the Huskies’ gym in Houghton at 5:30 p.m.

The third team involved in the third-place tie, Ferris State, comes to Vandament Arena in Marquette at 5:30 p.m. Monday to face the Wildcats.

NMU’s winning streak reached six games on Friday when Northern downed Davenport 73-46 before it was snapped by national No. 1 Grand Valley State a day later, 78-66, despite a 16-2 run in the fourth quarter that erased a major portion of a 20-point deficit.

Even with the loss, the Wildcats only fell two spots and are still ranked No. 14 nationally in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association poll with a 12-2 overall record and 3-1 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Tech and Ferris are also both 3-1 in league, the Huskies 9-3 overall and Bulldogs at 10-3.

By the way, GVSU and Wayne State lead the GLIAC with 4-0 conference records.

Both Northern games will be streamed on FloCollege and available on Marquette radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point, while tonight’s contest will also be televised on Fox-U.P.

Fans can also follow @NMU_WBBall and @NMU_Wildcats on X (formerly Twitter) for updates throughout the weekend, or visit the Wildcats athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the men’s basketball schedule for links to live video, live statistics, a preview and ticket information for Monday’s game.

“We kept battling and fighting (against Grand Valley),” Northern head coach Casey Thousand said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing the games. “We learned a lot playing the No. 1 team in the country.

“Right now, you don’t want to be playing your best basketball. Getting those improvements and getting a reset going into Michigan Tech is good.”

The Wildcats do an excellent job of taking care of the ball, ranking No. 2 lowest in NCAA Division II with 11.8 turnovers per game and 17th best with a 1.12 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Senior point guard CJ Romero can take credit for a lot of that, with her 4.1 assists per game and 1.8 assist-to-turnover ratio each top five in the GLIAC.

Offensively, NMU averages 73.4 points per game, No. 45 in the country, and hits 3-pointers at 36%, good for 12th.

That’s where another senior, Jacy Weisbrod, shines as she leads the conference at 17.4 ppg. Also tops not only in the GLIAC but the country are her 3.57 made 3-pointers per game and 50 total triples as she has hit multiple 3s in 11 of 14 games this season.

She also surpassed 1,000 career points against Davenport, the 29th player in the program history to do so.

Teammate Sarah Newcomer averages 9.6 ppg and is conference top 12 with 1.9 triples per game and 35.6% on those shots.

Negaunee High School graduate Alyssa Hill is third in NMU scoring at 8.6 ppg and fifth in league rebounding at 7.3 an outing. Addison Pytleski is right behind at 8.4 ppg after scoring 18 vs. Grand Valley.

MTU averages 67.6 ppg and allows 64.3 ppg, leading the nation by making 81.7% of its free throws.

Ella Mason, a former teammate of Hill’s at Negaunee, averages 15.4 ppg, making at least one triple in 10 straight games.

Ferris, which plays at Tech on Saturday, is a national leader with 18.4 assists per game, ranked fourth, 81% on free throws for fifth, and 3s per game at 8.8 for eighth.

Kadyn Blanchard leads the Bulldogs in scoring at 16.5 ppg, second only to Weisbrod in the GLIAC.

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