Northern Michigan University’s Jackson Dudek, left, and Trevor Polite, right, double-team Purdue Northwest’s Kyle Ross during their GLIAC men’s basketball game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette last Thursday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The league-leading men’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University travels to the western Lower Peninsula over the next few days to take on a pair of conference foes also in the top half of the standings.

The co-leading Wildcats have an overall record of 18-2 and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference mark of 9-1 — actually both records shared with Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech.

NMU takes on third-place Grand Valley State in Allendale at 7:30 p.m. today and fifth-place Davenport in Grand Rapids at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Northern moved up three positions to No. 10 in this week’s National Association of Basketball Coaches poll in NCAA Division II. By the way, the Huskies in Houghton maintained their No. 6 ranking in the same poll.

Both of NMU’s games will be video streamed online at FloCollege and will be available on Marquette radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.

Fans can follow @NMU_MensBBALL and @NMU_Wildcats on X (formerly Twitter) for updates leading up to and during games, or visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the men’s basketball schedule for links to live video, live statistics and a preview.

The Wildcats, who have their highest national ranking since January 1993 when they were No. 8, have won five straight after losing to MTU on Jan. 8.

That includes last week’s 82-75 home win over Purdue Northwest and 83-62 victory past Wayne State.

Dylan Kuehl is tied for the GLIAC lead in scoring in conference games at 22.1 points per game and third in scoring in all games at 19.3 ppg. It just happens that the coleader and leader in those categories plays for Saturday’s opponent, Davenport, in Ken Walker.

Kuehl has other high league rankings, too, for conference games. His 1.7 blocked shots per game is No. 1, 56.8% field goal percentage is No. 3 and 2.0 triples made per game is tied for 11th.

Northern is also nationally regarded as efficient, No. 1 in the country with a plus-12.6 per-game rebounding margin, No. 2 with a 1.83 assist-to-turnover ratio, No. 6 with 10.9 triples made per game, No. 8 with a 39.7% 3-point percentage and No. 10 with 62.5 points per game allowed.

Cal Klesmit is an NMU leader in 3s, ranking second in the league with 3.2 made per game and first by shooting 45.7% beyond the arc. And in conference games, he’s No. 9 in scoring at 15.2 ppg.

Bennett Basich, a transfer over the offseason, averages 12.4 ppg, 7.1 rebounds and 0.6 blocks per league game, scoring in double figures in seven of his last eight games that included a 13-point, 14-rebound performance on Jan. 17 vs. Saginaw Valley State.

Grand Valley, at 15-3 overall and 8-2 in the GLIAC, is the only squad closer than three in the loss column to Northern and Tech. The Lakers have won six in a row and are now ranked No. 23 nationally after downing Wisconsin-Parkside 77-67 and Roosevelt 87-69 last week.

Along with NMU having the No. 1 scoring defense in the league at 62.5 ppg and MTU second at 65.5 ppg, GVSU is third in that category at 66.1 ppg, more than 6.5 ppg ahead of every other league team.

In assist-to-turnover ratio, Lakers guards Mason Docks at 3.88 and Trevor Smith Jr. at 3.81 are first and second, respectively, in the country. At 14.1 ppg, Ethan Alderink leads three Lakers averaging at least 13 ppg.

Davenport is part of a scramble in the middle of the GLIAC at 5-5 and 11-7. Seven teams are within three games of each other between 6-4 and 3-7.

The Panthers defeated Roosevelt 78-60 and Parkside 68-54 last week, with their 29.1 defensive rebounds per game ranked No. 6 nationally and 40.0% field goal defense rated 22nd.

Walker is not only up with Kuehl among top conference scorers, he averages more than double of his next teammate, Dylan Smith at 10.6 ppg.

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