Women's Basketball Claims 55-49 Road Win Over Northern Michigan

MARQUETTE, MICH. – The Northwood University women's' basketball team picked up a vital 55-49 win over Northern Michigan Saturday (February 20), clinching a spot in the GLIAC Tournament for the Timberwolves.

Northwood is now 16-11 overall, 12-9 in the GLIAC. Northern Michigan falls to 13-14 overall, 12-9 in the GLIAC.

The win moves Northwood into a tie with NMU in the GLIAC standings. NU now wins any tiebreaker over NMU thanks to the Timberwolves sweeping the two games in the season. A loss today for NU would have put Northwood into a tie with NMU and would have given tiebreakers to the Wildcats. Northwood clinched the position in the tournament with Findlay's loss to Malone Saturday afternoon.

Northwood got off to a good start in the game, scoring the first five points of the contest. NU eventually led 15-12 after one quarter. Northwood shot 40.0 percent from the floor (6-15) while Northern Michigan finished at 36.4 percent (4-11).

Northwood led 17-15 in the second quarter when star center Jordyn Nurenberg (St. Johns, Mich.) picked up her second foul of the half. That sent her to the bench for the rest of the half. Shortly after that, the Wildcats went on a 10-0 run to open their biggest lead of the day at 25-20. NU scored the final two points of the quarter to make the score 25-22 at the break.

With Nurenberg back on the floor early in the second half, the Timberwolves took back the lead thanks to scoring 12 of the first 16 points of the half to put NU up 34-29. The advantage remained between two and five points until there were less than three minutes to go in the game when NU went up 53-46. Northwood got a pair of free throws by freshman Zakiya Wells (Ypsilanti, Mich./Arbor Prep) with NU leading by four points to close out the win.

For the game, Northwood shot 40.8 percent overall (20-49) while Northern Michigan finished at 35.0 percent (14-40). NU had just two more offensive rebounds than the Wildcats (11-9), but the Timberwolves finished with a 19-5 edge in second-chance points for the game.

Leading the way for Northwood was Nurenberg, who registered her 21^st double-double of the season. She finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds in 29 minutes of play. Lindsay Orwat (Grand Ledge, Mich./Oakland U.) scored 10 points, all of which came in the second half. Maddy Seeley (Alma, Mich.) added nine points off the bench.

Northwood will finish the regular season with a game at Lake Superior State Thursday night (February 25). Game time is set for 5:30 p.m.