Northern Michigan University’s CJ Romero, right, puts up a layup in the first quarter over Wayne State defender Karrington Gordon during their GLIAC women’s basketball game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Jan. 24. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

DETROIT — Anybody who can defeat the No. 1 team in the country must be pretty good.

That’s what the women’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University discovered on Thursday evening when Wayne State knocked off the Wildcats 84-63 at the Warriors’ gym.

Wayne State was coming off a 78-77 home triumph over former No. 1 and formerly undefeated Grand Valley State last Saturday.

NMU could’ve been hoping the Warriors might be overconfident, or simply still celebrating that monumental achievement, but apparently the WSU bunch was able to get grounded again for another tough opponent on Thursday.

The combatants had entered the day tied for third place in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, just two games behind still-league-leading Grand Valley.

Now, though, Wayne State has improved to 12-3 in league games and 17-6 overall, still two behind the Lakers after their easy 80-56 win over struggling Roosevelt at the same time.

With Ferris State remaining in second place at 12-2, Northern slipped back into fourth place at 11-4 in the conference, 20-5 overall.

While their margin for a top-four spot in the upcoming GLIAC Tournament still looks solid — the top four teams host the next four squads in the first-round quarterfinals — the Wildcats have to look out as the next team in fifth place is none other than Michigan Tech, a team Northern plays next week.

Before that, though, NMU goes to Hammond, Indiana, to face last-place Purdue Northwest at 2 p.m. EST today, hopefully a chance to get back on track after Thursday’s 21-point loss.

Northern had balanced scoring vs. the Warriors, maybe just because no one was able to put together any kind of dominating performance. Sydney Whitehouse came off the bench to lead the Wildcats with 12 points, as regular assist leader CJ Romero added 10 points after making 2 of 3 on 3-pointers.

Regular leading scorer Jacy Weisbrod was limited to just five points as she only made 1 of 9 on her usually reliable 3-point shot.

Weisbrod did share the team’s top rebounding honors of six with Baraga product Reide Osterman, the latter doing her work in just 15 minutes court time as she scored two points.

Sarah Newcomer added nine points, getting all those points by hitting on 3 of 4 triples.

The Warriors’ Taylor Thompson led all scorers with 26 points as teammate McKenna Ferguson put in 21 even as the pair between them went 0 of 6 on 3s.

Wayne State shot significantly better, 50% to 36%, and went to the free-throw line a whole lot — the Warriors were 20 of 30 there and NMU just 5 of 7, each team shooting in the neighborhood of 70% at the line.

Fueled by a dozen WSU steals, Northern committed a season-high 17 turnovers as the Warriors had 10.

Despite the bad news of the night, the Wildcats scored the game’s first five points on Weisbrod’s only 3 and an Alyssa Hill layup in the first 80 seconds.

They kept that lead until Thompson made a layup with 6:59 left in the opening quarter to knot the score 8-8.

Within 30 seconds, the Warriors got a 3 from Gabi Lutchka and they were never headed. Those baskets were part of a WSU 10-0 run to leave Northern down 14-8 with 5:44 left in the first period.

NMU remained within 22-16 at the end of the quarter, but the home team quickly built the lead into double digits, where it would remain the rest of the night.

Trailing 48-30 at halftime, the Wildcats got as close as 10 points on two occasions, the last time 54-44 with 3:45 left in the third following a Romero triple.

Wayne State immediately answered with a 9-0 run to pretty much put the game away.

Northern was down 65-51 entering the fourth, but dropped back 20 points, 78-58, with 4:36 left as it stayed around that margin down the stretch.

Wayne St. 84, NMU 63

Thursday at Detroit

Summary (field goals, free throws, total points)

NORTHERN MICHIGAN — Romero 4-0-10, Newcomer 3-0-9, Pytleski 2-2-6, Weisbrod 2-0-5, Hill 2-0-4, Whitehouse 5-2-12, Walder 3-0-6, Schmittdiel 2-0-4, Schroeder 1-1-3, Osterman 1-0-2, Slocum 1-0-2. Totals 26-5-63.

WAYNE STATE — Thompson 9-8-26, Ferguson 7-7-21, Lutchka 5-1-13, Gordon 1-0-2, Miller 3-4-10, Sylvester 4-0-8, Boyke 1-0-2, Beydoun 1-0-2. Totals 31-20-84.

Score by quarters:

Northern Michigan 16 14 21 12 — 63

Wayne State 22 26 17 19 — 84

FG shooting: NMU 26 of 72 (36.1 percent), Wayne State 31 of 62 (50 percent); 3-point shooting: NMU 6 of 23 (26.1 percent), Wayne State 2 of 14 (14.3 percent); FT shooting: NMU 5 of 7 (71.4 percent), Wayne State 20 of 30 (66.7 percent); Rebounding, NMU 44 (Jacy Weisbrod and Reide Osterman 6 each), Wayne State 40 (Taylor Thompson 9); Assists, NMU 15 (6 players with 2 each), Wayne State 18 (Jaci Tubergen 5); Steals, NMU 3 (3 players with 1 each), Wayne State 12 (Thompson 4); Turnovers, NMU 17, Wayne State 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.