Men's Basketball Falls At Lake Superior State 96-94

SAULT STE. MARIE, MICH. – The Northwood University men's basketball team saw its 2015-16 season come to an end with a tough 96-94 loss to Lake Superior State Thursday night (February 25).

Northwood's loss, combined with Grand Valley State's win over Ferris State, put the Timberwolves one game behind GVSU for the final wild card slot in the tournament.

Northwood finishes the season 15-13 overall, 11-11 in the GLIAC. Lake Superior State stands at 19-9 overall, 14-8.

Both offenses came out strong in the opening half, combining to score 98 points. The two teams combined to connect on 18 3-pointers in the half (NU – 8, LS – 10). The Lakers led by as many as 11 before the Timberwolves fought back to cut the Laker lead to 52-46 at the break.

The two teams traded runs throughout the second half. LSSU led 69-60, only to see the Timberwolves rattle off nine straight points to tie the game 69-69. Moments later, LSSU scored nine straight points of their own to go back up 80-71. NU then scored 11 of the next 15 points to get back within two at 84-82. Northwood would get within two or less points six times in the final 2:41 but were never able to tie the score. LSSU stepped up at the foul line in the final moments – after going 13-25 (52.0 percent) from the line in the opening 39 minutes of the game, the Lakers went 6-6 from the foul line in the final 27 seconds to earn the win.

For the game, Northwood finished at 46.5 percent overall (33-71), 39.3 percent from 3-point range (11-28) and 85.0 percent from the foul line (17-20). LSSU finished at 51.6 percent from the floor (32-62), 48.1 percent from 3-point range (13-27) and 61.3 percent from the foul line (19-31).

Maurice Jones (Saginaw, Mich./Arthur Hill) led Northwood in scoring in the game, finishing with 25 points. He also shared team-high honors in rebounds with seven. Jones reached the 1,000 point mark for his Northwood career in the game, totaling 1,016 points in his two-seasons for the Timberwolves. Combined with his time at USC, Jones finishes his four-year career with 1,769 points.

Other strong performances tonight included Jermaine Myers (Ajax, Ont./Fordham U.). He ended up with 18 points, nine assists, six rebounds and three steals. Nick Spitzley (Pewamo, Mich./Pewamo-Westphalia) and Zach Allread (West Bloomfield, Mich.) each added 11 points. Dylan Langkabel (Morristown, Ind.), playing in his final game at Northwood, finished with 10 points. He finished his Northwood career with 1,395 points, good for 15^th in school history.