MARQUETTE – Two days after picking up a big win against Findlay, the Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team was dealt a big loss.

The Wildcats (5-5, 3-1 GLIAC) struggled on both ends of the floor and fell to Wayne State, 67-43. Jordan Perez led NMU with 11 points despite not making a shot in the second half.

On the other hand, the Warriors (2-5, 2-2 GLIAC) had three scorers finish in double figures led by forward Michael Lewis with 17.

“It wasn’t a good night, defensively, offensively or rebounding,” Wildcats head coach Bill Sall said. “I tried to tell our guys that Wayne State lives on how they defend and rebound. That’s how their coach has been and I’ve been going against him for 13 years.

“If you’re not ready to play physical basketball and not ready to step up to the challenge, you’re going to be in trouble.”

In the first half, NMU held a brief four-point lead, but a steal and dunk by Clark Bishop brought the WSU bench to its feet and the Warriors took control. A driving layup by John Draper and a nifty reverse layup by Marcus Moore as the shot clock expired helped give WSU at 27-20 lead at halftime.

The Wildcats struggled with their shooting in the first half, especially from beyond the arc where they were 1 of 8. NMU finished 2 of 12 on 3s.

“For us, there were some shots in the first half that we normally have hit here in the last couple of games that we didn’t,” Sall said. “We never really adjusted. We never got to the point where we were trying to attack more. Our inexperience and youth showed a lot in how they were able to manhandle us in a lot of situations.

“From our standpoint, we hopefully will have learned from this. This is a long season and every night you have to be ready to battle and we just didn’t do that tonight.”

The second half was more of the same for the Wildcats. The Warriors extended their lead to 25 points when they went on a 15-0 run, highlighted by a long 3-pointer by Lewis. A trey by Gavin Toma then put WSU up by 31 and iced the game.

Despite the loss, Sall likes where the Wildcats are in the conference and thinks the second half could be just as positive.

“From a positioning standpoint, 3-1 is pretty good,” he said about his team’s GLIAC record. “I would’ve hoped for sure to be 2-2 because it still puts you kind of in the mix and 3-1 does as well.

“You have those first four games in the GLIAC and then when you get back from break, it’s an every Thursday-Saturday grind. Let’s hope that we’ve learned good things and learned some things that we really need to improve on as we go forward.”

The Wildcats are off until Friday, Jan. 2, when they play at Tiffin (Ohio) University. Northern’s next home game is Thursday, Jan. 8, against Ashland (Ohio) University.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.