Northern Michigan University’s Dylan Kuehl, left, scores two on this bucket during a GLIAC men’s basketball game played against Saginaw Valley State at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Thursday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — Maybe the players and coaching staff of the men’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University are leading a charmed life.

It seems no matter what the Wildcats do, they remain tied for first place in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Despite losing at home 71-68 to Lake Superior State on Saturday afternoon, NMU remained part of a logjam atop the league at 11-3 with a half-dozen games to go in the regular season.

Northern has now alternated wins and losses over its last four games, but in each instance, has either been part of a tie with Michigan Tech, with Grand Valley State or with both at the same time.

The latter instance — a three-way tie — is what the GLIAC looks like now as the Wildcats and Huskies are now both 20-4 overall and Grand Valley is 18-4. Each of those teams is also ranked in the “teens” in NCAA Division II, GVSU at No. 14, NMU at No. 16 and MTU at No. 17. New rankings are scheduled to come out today, though.

It was only Tech among the tri-leaders that got a win Saturday, 62-52 at home over Saginaw Valley State, while Grand Valley fell 70-68 at Wayne State.

At Vandament Arena in Marquette on Saturday afternoon, Northern twice dug itself big holes against Lake State only to come all the way back each time.

But for the second time in the second half, the Wildcats were only able to pull even before the Lakers went back out ahead for a one- or two-possession lead throughout the final five minutes.

Dylan Kuehl did his best to will NMU to a win, scoring a game-high 26 points by making 3 of 4 on 3-pointers and 10 of 15 from the field overall, adding 3 of 4 free throws, then sharing the team high with eight rebounds.

Teammate Bennett Basich added 13 points, making 3 of 3 free throws, grabbing six rebounds and adding in two assists and two steals.

NMU’s Jackson Dudek also grabbed eight rebounds while making two assists and hitting two triples for eight points, Charlie Miller made a game-high four steals in his five-point day, and Brooks Hinson grabbed five rebounds while scoring nine points.

Nino Carter-Smith led four LSSU players scoring in double figures with 18 points.

Though Kuehl scored the game’s first points with a two-handed reverse dunk just 23 seconds in and made a layup about two minutes later to tie it 4-4, the Lakers immediately went on a 13-0 run after that to go ahead 17-4 following Carter-Smith’s layup with 14:29 left in the first half.

The Wildcats steadily chipped away at their deficit until they tied it 23-23 with 5:57 left before intermission on a Kuehl jumper.

They actually took the lead for the final four minutes of the first half after a Kuehl triple and layups by Kuehl and Hinson made it 30-28 at halftime.

NMU continued to nurse that lead for another four minutes to start the second half, its zenith at 36-30 with 17:30 to go on a Kuehl “traditional” three-point play with a tip-in and free throw.

But when Carter-Smith hit a 3 with 15:49 to go, LSSU tied it 36-36 and would never trail again.

The Lakers steadily worked their lead back into double digits, the high point at 12 points twice, the final time 55-43 with 9:49 left on a pair of Tyler Jamison free throws.

At exactly that point, though, Northern launched it final comeback, outscoring Lake State 16-4 over the next 4 1/2 minutes to tie it 59-59 with 5:22 remaining on a Kuehl triple.

But NMU would never get the lead as LSSU’s Omar Suleiman hit a jumper 26 seconds after Kuehl’s tying bucket to put Lake State back on top for good.

The Lakers’ lead see-sawed between one possession, two points, and two possessions, six points, the rest of the way.

After several missed shots — two of them apparently blocked shots by the Lake State — in the last 10 seconds, Hinson made a layup at the buzzer for the final three-point margin.

With the trio atop the GLIAC all having three losses, no other league team is better than 8-6. That squad is Wayne State, who the Wildcats will visit in Detroit at 7:30 p.m. Thursday before heading to northern Indiana to take on sixth-place Purdue Northwest at 4 p.m. EST Saturday.

LSSU 71, NMU 68

Saturday at Vandament Arena

Summary (field goals, free throws, total points)

LAKE SUPERIOR STATE — Carter-Smith 4-4-18, Richards 4-6-16, Suleiman 5-2-14, Jamison 4-4-13, Sorrelle 1-0-2, Hess 1-2-5, Smith 1-0-3. Totals 21-19-71.

NORTHERN MICHIGAN — Kuehl 10-3-26, Basich 5-3-13, Dudek 2-2-8, Miller 2-0-5, Klesmit 1-1-4, Hinson 3-2-9, Polite 1-1-3. Totals 24-12-68.

Halftime score: NMU 30-28

FG shooting: Lake Superior State 21 of 50 (42 percent), NMU 24 of 57 (42.1 percent); 3-point shooting: Lake Superior State 10 of 32 (31.3 percent), NMU 8 of 23 (34.8 percent); FT shooting: Lake Superior State 19 of 29 (65.5 percent), NMU 12 of 18 (66.7 percent); Rebounding, Lake Superior State 33 (Tyler Jamison 9), NMU 36 (Dylan Kuehl and Jackson Dudek 8 each); Assists, Lake Superior State 11 (Nino Carter-Smith 4), NMU 8 (Dudek and Bennett Basich 2 each); Steals, Lake Superior State 9 (Carter-Smith 3), NMU 6 (Charlie Miller 4); Turnovers, Lake Superior State 9, NMU 12.

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.