MARQUETTE – The Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team could’ve dealt itself a near-fatal blow in their quest for a GLIAC Tournament bid on Saturday.

But they got a little help from their new friends in Ohio and instead locked up a playoff berth with one game to go.

The Wildcats lost to Northwood 55-49 at the Berry Events Center, falling to 13-14 overall and 12-9 in the GLIAC. They fell into a tie for seventh place with the Timberwolves, who are 16-11 overall with eight teams making the league postseason.

The help Northern received came courtesy of Malone, which despite a 5-15 record was able to beat ninth-place Findlay 74-70 on Saturday and knock the Oilers out of the playoff hunt at 10-11.

If Findlay had won Saturday, they and Northwood could’ve won again against lesser opposition in their final games Thursday and forced the Wildcats to beat GLIAC No. 2 Michigan Tech to insure a playoff bid.

That might’ve been the only good news for the Wildcats on Saturday, who let a 25-22 halftime lead slip away early in the third quarter.

Northern trailed for most of the first quarter before coming back to take a 22-20 lead with 3:20 to go in the first half on a Taylor Hodell layup.

That advantage slipped away just as quickly in the third, when the Timberwolves used an 8-0 run to turn a 29-26 deficit into a 34-29 lead with 4:38 left.

Though NMU got within two points at least five times after that, they couldn’t quite catch Northwood.

Shooting hurt the Wildcats, who made just 35 percent (14 of 40) overall from the field, including 1 of 6 on 3-pointers. Their saving grace was sinking 20 of 26 at the free-throw line. Nobody exhibited that better than leading scorer Bre Gaspervich. The junior point guard made 8 of 12 at the line but missed all nine of her field goal attempts.

Hodell led NMU scorers with 19 points as she added three blocked shots, while teammate Darby Youngstrom put in 12 points. Gaspervich, despite being probably the shortest player on the floor, led Northern rebounders with 10 to go with three assists.

The Wildcats’ game against MTU is in Houghton at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

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