Northern Michigan University’s Dylan Kuehl, left, goes up for his second dunk of the day with Wisconsin-Parkside’s Fawaz Surakat left in the dust during their GLIAC men’s basketball game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Saturday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The nets were cut down on Saturday afternoon for the fourth straight season by the men’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University.

That’s because the Wildcats again clinched a title in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, this year being the regular-season title, with a 98-75 victory over Wisconsin-Parkside on Saturday afternoon at Vandament Arena.

NMU clinched either the regular-season crown or the GLIAC Tournament championship in 2026, 2025, 2024 and 2023.

But there’s no reason the Northern men can’t make it TWO this season, adding a conference tourney title if they can win another three games in a row over the next week.

As long as NMU keeps winning, it keeps playing at home as the No. 1 seed in the tourney. The Northern men join the Wildcat women playing at home on Wednesday in their respective GLIAC tourney first-round quarterfinals, the No. 4 women’s game vs. No. 5 Michigan Tech tipping off at 5:30 p.m.

The men’s game follows, No. 8 Ferris State vs. No. 1 NMU, though a separate ticket will be required to attend that game scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

While the NMU women will in all likelihood go on the road for the semifinals and finals if they win Wednesday, the Northern men are guaranteed to stay at home for their semis and finals as the No. 1 seed — as long as they win the quarterfinal opener.

Tickets for Wednesday’s game are available online at tickets.nmu.edu, with tickets also available at the Superior Dome Ticket Office or by phone at 227-1032 during weekday business hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

They cost $14 for general public reserved seating, $10 for general public general admission, $2 for college students general admission with a valid ID, and free for children under 5 years old.

Northern’s men’s title came about with a wire-to-wire victory over Parkside on Saturday and also winning a tiebreaker with MTU — while they split their season series, NMU won the next tiebreaker with a better record vs. the top team in the standings not involved in the tie, Grand Valley State. Though the Wildcats only split with GVSU, the Lakers swept Tech.

The Upper Peninsula rivals finished with identical 25-5 overall and 16-4 GLIAC records, while Grand Valley was nipping at their heels at 22-6 and 15-5.

Ferris State won a tiebreaker with Saginaw Valley State for the last position in the tourney. The Bulldogs are 10-17 overall and 7-13 in league.

Parkside also ended up on the outside of the tourney at 11-16 and 6-14.

On Saturday, though, the big story was yet another career scoring night by graduate student forward Dylan Kuehl, as he reached 40 points for the first time and the 17th time by a Northern men’s player.

He knocked down 41 points on 15-of-20 overall shooting from the field, including 4 of 7 on 3-pointers. He also was a perfect 7 of 7 at the free-throw line, adding in a game-high nine rebounds, sharing top assist honors with four and blocking three shots. No other player on either team had even one block.

He did a little of everything, knocking down the multiple 3s while also slamming home five dunks, according to a game report from NMU Sports Information.

Two days earlier, Kuehl had set his career high with 36 points in a win over Roosevelt.

The prolific scorer got help with 14 points from Bennett Basich as he made 6 of 10 from the field including a pair of triples, adding in three rebounds.

Brooks Hinson came off the bench to pump in 11 points in 21 minutes, hitting on 4 of 5 shots that included 3 of 4 treys.

Jackson Dudek added in nine points with a triple and three rebounds, while Sam Privet earned six points and five rebounds, and Charlie Miller provided five points, four rebounds and a game-high three steals.

Luka Mateski paced the Rangers with 22 points.

While the Wildcats had a solid advantage in shooting, 59% to 52%, they really took advantage on the boards with a 35-22 edge. They also committed just seven turnovers to 12 for Parkside.

With Kuehl hitting a 3 and making a dunk in the game’s first two minutes, NMU jumped ahead 5-0, making it 10-2 less than two minutes later.

But the Rangers showed some game for awhile after that, narrowing its deficit to one point, 23-22, with 10:30 left in the first half after UWP’s Josiah Palmer nailed a triple.

Then Northern raced to its first double-digit lead, 39-29, with 4:26 remaining before intermission on a Privet layup.

Settling for a 50-39 halftime advantage, Parkside stayed within 60-48 with 15:28 to go. That’s when NMU went on a 10-4 run to open a 70-52 lead after another Kuehl 3.

The Wildcats’ high-water mark was a 26-point lead, the first time at 84-58 with 7:36 to go on a Basich layup, then again with 30 seconds left following a Cody Schmitz layup.

The final point total was just two points shy of making it double-digit points for NMU in back-to-back games after a 100-87 win over Roosevelt on Thursday.

NMU 98, Wis.-Parkside 75

Saturday at Vandament Arena

Summary (field goals, free throws, total points)

WISCONSIN-PARKSIDE — Mateski 7-6-22, Warden 7-3-17, Palmer 4-0-11, Surakat 1-5-7, Behn 0-1-1, Ivan 3-0-7, Rose 1-1-4, McGlothlin 1-0-3, Lootens 1-0-3. Totals 25-16-75.

NORTHERN MICHIGAN — Kuehl 15-7-41, Basich 6-0-14, Dudek 4-0-9, Privet 3-0-6, Klesmit 1-2-4, Hinson 4-0-11, Miller 1-2-5, Polite 2-0-4, Bellisle 1-0-2, Schmitz 1-0-2. Totals 38-11-98.

Halftime score: NMU 50-39

FG shooting: Wis.-Parkside 25 of 48 (52.1 percent), NMU 38 of 65 (58.5 percent); 3-point shooting: Wis.-Parkside 9 of 18 (50 percent), NMU 11 of 26 (42.3 percent); FT shooting: Wis.-Parkside 16 of 26 (61.5 percent), NMU 11 of 11 (100 percent); Rebounding, Wis.-Parkside 22 (Fawaz Surakat 5), NMU 35 (Dylan Kuehl 9); Assists, Wis.-Parkside 9 (3 players with 2 each), NMU 18 (3 players with 4 each); Steals, Wis.-Parkside 4 (Surakat 2), NMU 8 (Charlie Miller 3); Turnovers, Wis.-Parkside 12, NMU 7.

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