Northern Michigan University’s Sydney Whitehouse, right, scores two points on this shot while defended by Lake Superior State’s Malia Thelen during their GLIAC game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Feb. 7. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The women’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University has a pair of important games in the conference this week, starting with this afternoon’s home matchup with top Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech.

The nationally ranked Wildcats host MTU at 5:30 p.m. today as the Huskies are NMU’s closest pursuer in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

While No. 20 Northern (21-5, 12-4 GLIAC) is in fourth place in the league and would like to try to catch third-place Wayne State (13-3 GLIAC) and even second-place Ferris State (14-2), Tech (9-7) wants to close the gap for the final home berth in the first-round quarterfinals of the upcoming GLIAC Tournament to be held in two weeks.

Tech is 15-9 overall and right now would play at Northern as a No. 4-No. 5 seed matchup in the first round of the GLIAC tourney.

After today’s game vs. the Huskies, NMU hits the road for the final time in the regular season to face second-place Ferris at 1 p.m. Saturday in Big Rapids.

After that, NMU returns home to host middle-of-the-pack teams, seventh-place Roosevelt next Thursday and sixth-place Wisconsin-Parkside on Saturday, Feb. 28.

Today, though, the Wildcats face their biggest U.P. rival having won their first encounter 74-46 in Houghton on Jan. 8.

Tonight’s game is a White Out game at Vandament, with Northern fans encouraged to wear white with a limited supply of white rally towels to be placed on arena chairs as supplied by GMC.

In addition following tonight’s men’s game, an Overtime Party will be held at Slabz Bar & Grill in the Ramada Inn on West Washington Street with a cash bar and complimentary hors d’oeuvres.

Both games this week will be broadcast on Marquette radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point, with tonight’s game also televised on Fox-U.P. Fans can also follow @NMU_WBBall on Instagram and @NMU_Wildcats on X (formerly Twitter) for updates throughout the weekend, or visit the Northern athletics website at www.nmuwildcats.com and look under the women’s basketball schedule for links to ticket information, live video, live statistics and a preview.

During tonight’s game, NMU student-athletes from Northern’s Student Athletic Advisory Committee will collect cash donations for a Miracle Minute, raising funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation to help a U.P. resident.

Last week, the Wildcats split a pair of road games, falling to Wayne State 84-63 and beating Purdue Northwest 82-57, as Sydney Whitehouse and Negaunee product Alyssa Hill had game-scoring honors. Against Purdue NW, Hill scored 19 points to match her most as a Northern player while Casey Thousand earned her 200th career win as a head coach.

NMU’s Jacy Weisbrod continues to lead NCAA Division II with her 86 made 3-pointers and 3.46 triples per game while she is third in GLIAC scoring at 16.4 points per game.

Teammate CJ Romero is No. 1 in the league with 112 assists and Hill No. 3 in rebounds with 187.

Tech also lost at Wayne State and defeated Purdue NW last week, though both their results were much closer than NMU’s, a 68-67 setback at Wayne State and 63-59 victory at Purdue NW.

MTU’s leading scorer, another Negaunee graduate in sophomore Ella Mason, is No. 10 in GLIAC scoring in all games at 14.2 ppg.

Ferris, whose eight-game winning streak dates back to a loss vs. league-leading Grand Valley State on Jan. 19, has the league’s leading scorer in conference games in Mia Riley at 18.7 ppg, with teammate Kadyn Blanchard second at 17.7 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.