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The Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team went wire-to-wire with the top team in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, the Wayne State Warriors, on Saturday (Jan. 19) morning. The Warriors defeated the Wildcats 65-59 from the Berry Events Center.

Four players scored in double figures for Northern as senior forward TJ Cameron and sophomore forward Kendall Jackson each had 15 points. Freshman guard Stephan Pelkofer tallied 14 while junior forward Matthew Craggs added 11.

With Wayne State up by seven, NMU went on a 6-2 run capped off by a Craggs layup to cut the Warrior lead to one (57-56) with 2:11 left in the game. The Warriors answered with a three-pointer by Mike Hollingsworth to put the lead back to four.

Jackson had an offensive put back to cut the lead to two but Hollingsworth made a pair of free throw to extend the lead and the Warriors added three more free throws and NMU missed three shots down the stretch.

Northern finished the game shooting 34.1 percent (15-for-44) from the floor and 37.5 percent (6-for-16) from the three-point line. The ‘Cats also made 23-of-27 free throws and outrebounded the Warriors 30-22, including 12 on the offensive end.

With the loss, the ‘Cats are now 4-12 overall and 3-8 in the GLIAC. Wayne State is 12-2 overall and a perfect 11-0 in conference play.

WSU was led by Ian Larkin with a game-high 24 points. He shot 10-for-12 from the field. Hollingsworth finished with 20 points while Gerald Williams-Taylor was also in double figures with 10.

The Warriors shot 51.2 percent on the day and 41.7 percent from beyond the arc. WSU made 16-of-21 from the charity stripe.

NMU held a 25-22 lead at halftime, holding the lead for the majority of the first 20 minutes. Jackson had seven points and Pelkofer had six at the break and the ‘Cats shot 33.3 percent (8-for-24) from the floor.

Tipoff was at 11 a.m. due to the hockey game later in the evening.

Northern travels across the U.P. to take on Lake Superior State on Thursday (Jan. 24) and then heads to Northwood on Saturday (Jan. 26).