MARQUETTE – Chavis Mattison’s 20 points and 10 rebounds and a four-point halftime lead weren’t enough to get the Northern Michigan University men a victory on Thursday night.

Lake Superior State came back in the second half to run off with a 60-48 basketball victory and improve to 16-3 overall and 11-2 in the GLIAC’s North Division. NMU slipped to 6-13 overall and 4-9 in the GLIAC North.

After several lead changes and five ties, the Wildcats pulled away just a bit for a 29-25 halftime lead.

They kept that lead for nine minutes into the second half, but after LSSU’s Tony Harris scored a layup with 9:37 left, the Lakers took the lead for good.

Mattison made 7 of 13 from the field and 6 of 7 at the free throw line as Northern overall actually outshot LSSU, but turned the ball over 18 times including from a dozen Lakers steals. The one area the Wildcats did struggle was with 3-pointers, making just 1 of 13 (7 percent), though LSSU didn’t exactly light up the triple column at 4 of 18 (22 percent).

NMU’s next highest scorer after Mattison was Terry Nash with eight points, though he did dish out three assists while turning the ball over seven times.

Alex Williams paced Lake State with 12 points, six rebounds and three steals, while Tony Harris added 10 points and also three steals.

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