Women's Basketball Defeats Lake Superior State 49-45

SAULT STE. MARIE, MICH. – The Northwood University women's basketball team finished the regular season with a hard-fought 49-45 win over Lake Superior State Thursday night (February 25).

Northwood clinches the No. 7 seed in the GLIAC Tournament with the win. The Timberwolves are now 17-11 overall, 13-9 in the GLIAC. Lake Superior State finishes the season 5-23 overall, 4-18 in the GLIAC.

It appeared the Timberwolves were on their way to an easy victory after a fast start. The Timberwolves out-scored LSSU 19-2 in the opening seven minutes of the game. Northwood eventually led 19-4 at the end of the opening stanza.

Northwood's offense did not have a field goal over the final five minutes of the second quarter, which allowed the Lakers to fight back into the game. NU led 29-13 with 2:20 remaining in the half, but LSSU scored nine of the final 10 points in that stretch to make the NU lead 30-22 at the break. The Timberwolves shot 37.0 percent in the half (10-27) compared to Lake Superior State at 29.6 percent (8-27).

NU got the lead back up to 11 (42-31) heading to the fourth quarter, but the Northwood offense went cold again in the fourth. The Timberwolves were 1-10 from the floor in the frame while LSSU went 6-15 (40.0 percent). The Lakers cut the advantage down to three on three separate occasions but were unable to get any closer.

For the game, Northwood finished at 32.0 percent from the floor (16-50), 16.7 percent from 3-point range (2-12) and 60.0 percent from the foul line (15-25). LSSU ended up at 28.6 percent overall (16-56), 23.5 percent from 3-point range (4-17) and 100 percent from the foul line (9-9).

Lauren Robak (Clarkston, Mich./Our Lady of the Lakes) led all player with 19 points. She moved into third place on the all-time scoring list at Northwood, now standing with 1,453 points. Robak is 12 points behind all-time leader Lauren Metaj (1,465 points). Jordyn Nurenberg (St. Johns, Mich.) finished with 16 points and a career-high 18 rebounds. In the game, Nurenberg set the NU record for most rebounds in a season, now standing with 304 for the year. The old record of 294 was set by Margi Kronmueller in the 1988-89 season. Nurenberg already set the record for most points in a season, now standing with 494. Her 18 rebounds tonight tie her for the seventh-most in any game in NU history.

Northwood will open GLIAC Tournament play as the No. 7 seed Tuesday night (March 1) against rival Saginaw Valley State. SVSU, the No. 2 seed in the event, will host the game starting at 6 p.m.