MARQUETTE – The Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team needed to check their intestinal fortitude on Saturday.

They passed with flying colors, beating GLIAC South Division foe Lake Erie College 62-50 to stop a four-game losing streak.

“Today was about guts and that was a good thing to see,” NMU head coach Bill Sall said. “We’re not pretty, but if you have guts and are winning to battle, you’re going to have a much better chance.”

The Wildcats started slowly but righted the ship with a 13-2 run over the course of three minutes late in the second half.

Jordan Perez led NMU with 17 points, while Marcus Hall chipped in 13.

“We knew coming in that this was a must-win,” Wildcats guard Terry Nash said. “We just wanted to go out and compete and get back to playing Wildcat basketball.”

The first half seemed uneventful an NMU 10-0 run, which helped the Wildcats go into the break ahead 22-17.

The majority of the second half went much the same way. Two treys by Hall kept the Wildcats up by single digits until midway through the 20 minutes, when back-to-back layups gave Lake Erie its first lead since early in the game at 39-37.

Then NMU bounced back quickly and tied the game 41-41 on a jumper by Chavis Mattison. He also scored the Wildcats’ next seven points and helped them snatch the lead back. The Wildcats sank their free throws down the stretch to nail down the win.

“We made stops and got rebounds, which helped us get some good pushes,” Sall said.

Now that the Wildcats have won more games than they did all of last season, the Wildcats are happy, but they’re still far from done.

“It feels good now, but we’re not satisfied,” Nash said. “We can’t say that we have enough wins and we can coast now. We need to keep working like it’s 0-0.”

The Wildcats remain at home at the Berry Events Center this week, taking on Grand Valley State at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Ferris State at 3 p.m. Saturday.

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