COLUMBUS, Ohio – Northern Michigan University shot well and led wire to wire to hold off Ohio Dominican 63-47 in a college women’s basketball game played on the road on Sunday.

The Wildcats, who improved to 5-4 overall and 3-2 in the GLIAC, shot 48 percent from the field (22 of 46), including better than 50 percent on 3-pointers, making 7 or 13.

Sophomore guard Bre Gaspervich led all scorers with a game-high 17 points, while senior guards Alyssa Colla and Lauren Gruber pitched in 15 and 11 points, respectively.

The was the third of four games that head coach Troy Mattson was forced to miss due to a suspension in the aftermath of comments he made about Wayne State following the Wildcats’ home loss on Dec. 15. He is eligible to return for Northern’s home game on Saturday.

With senior center Courtney Lemon hitting a 3-pointer in Sunday’s opening minute, NMU built leads of 4-0 and 8-2 early. Then a jump shot by junior forward Nea Makela capped off a 17-8 run that put NMU firmly in control at 25-12 about 3 1/2 minutes before halftime.

Defense was the rule as Northern held ODU to 24 percent shooting (7 of 29) in the opening 20 minutes.

Though the lead remained in double digits at halftime, 30-19, ODU cut its deficit to four points twice in the second half at 35-31 and 39-35, the second time coming with 12:50 remaining.

The Wildcats didn’t get their back to double digits for good until 3:01 was left when Gruber hit a pair of free throws.

The Wildcats shot 11-22 (.500) from the field and 5-7 (.714) from three-point range in the opening half, while the NMU defense held Ohio Dominican to 7-29 (.241) shooting.

Lemon pulled in nine boards to share rebounding honors with Ohio Dominican’s Madi Rittinger.

The Wildcats return home this week when they host Ashland at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Lake Erie at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@ miningjournal.net.