MARQUETTE – In its previous outing, the Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team earned a win at Northwood when the Wildcats made 15 of 15 from the free throw line.

The charity stripe was the story of Monday’s game against Michigan Tech as well. However, it was the Huskies that were the clutch shooters.

The Huskies knocked down 33 of 41 free throws en route to a 69-56 win over the Wildcats. Kyle Monroe led the Huskies with 19 points and went 11 of 12 at the line. Teammate Bryan Heath chipped in 14 points and was even better at the line, a perfect 12 of 12. Luke Heller scored nine points while pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds.

Even though his team won comfortably, Tech head coach Kevin Luke seemed relieved after the game was over.

“I feel fortunate,” he said. “I like the way that we defended for most of the game. You’ve got to give Northern Michigan credit. They didn’t quit.

“It was a rivalry game and that’s what is going to happen. It’s going to be a game of runs. We just had enough left in us and we built a big enough lead to be able to hold them off.”

Wildcats head coach Bill Sall was frustrated after the loss and did not mince words when describing his team’s performance.

“That was disappointing, to say the least,” he said. “I don’t know. I wish I could explain it to you. You have a rivalry game and I thought that in the first half, our defensive effort was as poor as it’s been this year.

“We played really selfish basketball. We played very poorly offensively and even worse on ‘D.’ A lot of undisciplined play. Really, without question, I’d say just an amazingly disappointing performance by our basketball team.”

Jordan Perez led the Wildcats with 16 points, while Marcus Hall had 11.

The Huskies took an early lead with the help of a Dillon Gordon 3-pointer from the corner and they led by 10 with 11:53 remaining after two free throws by Monroe.

Another 8-0 run highlighted by layups from Heller and Heath gave Tech a 25-12 lead with 7:36 left. With 1:40 remaining, Tech had a 16-point advantage before Isaiah Johnson knocked down a trey and Hall hit a fadeaway jumper to beat the halftime buzzer.

“I liked the fact that we got it inside,” Luke said. “I liked the way some of our players defended tonight versus their guys. I think we didn’t do a great job, but we minimized their second-chance opportunities.”

The Huskies continued to roll early in the second half, going up by 20 points with 15:08 remaining, before Northern made things interesting.

A charge led by Hall and Perez helped whittle down the Wildcats deficit. A Perez 3-pointer cut the Huskies’ lead to 10 points and his two free throws with 7:11 remaining made it a six-point game, 54-48.

But that was as close at Northern would get. A Kyle Stankowski layup put the Huskies back up by double digits with 4:40 left and Tech hit several free trows down the stretch to close it out.

When asked what the Wildcats need to do now, Sall said they can’t keep moving backward.

“I think, personally, our guys need to do a little soul-searching on their own here,” he said. “We’ve made strides and then we take a step back. We can’t afford to continue to do that.”

On Thursday, Northern hosts Grand Valley State at 8 p.m.

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