Five Wildcats starters reach double figures
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. – Trailing most of the evening and facing a 83-82 deficit in the final seconds, Julien Smith stepped into a three-pointer ahead of the Northern Michigan bench and sank a deep triple as the final horn sounded, stunning Illinois-Springfield 85-83.
Northern was facing an 83-82 deficit with just seconds left with Illinois-Springfield at the charity stripe. After both shots rattled off, Dylan Kuehl grabbed the rebound, quickly passed the ball ahead to Gerald Gittens Jr. who dropped it off to a trailing Smith in front of his teammates on the bench. The rest is history, as Smith’s buzzer-beating three finished off a dramatic, come-from-behind victory to remain undefeated.
In the battle of unbeatens, the ‘Cats move to 3-0 while sending the Prairie Stars to 2-1. Northern was able to overcome an improbable shooting performance from UIS who was 29-43 (67.4%) from the floor and 21-28 (75.0%) from the charity stripe. The ‘Cats also shot over 50%, going 32-59 (54.2%).
All five starters reached double figures, led by a red-hot Sam Privet with 22 on 9-11 (81.8%) from the field and 4-5 (80.0%) from beyond the arc. Dylan Kuehl added 13, going 2-2 from three, while Julien Smith added 12 with two triples as well. Gittens scored 12 with a 3-4 clip from three. Those four combined for a 11-16 (68.8%) clip from downtown. Brian Paryzch chipped in another 11.
Off the bench, Michael McNabb added nine points while Jackson Dudek, Derek Merwick, and Biggie Luster also scored.
NMU dished out 16 assists and committed just eight turnovers for a 2.0 assist to turnover ratio. NMU led in assists 16-8, steals 7-2, and offensive rebounds 6-1.
It didn’t start well for the Green and Gold, facing a 9-2 deficit just a couple of minutes into the game. Fighting an uphill battle from there, NMU went on a 9-2 run themselves soon after to close the gap to 20-19 with Michael McNabb scoring twice off the bench. A Kuehl 4-point play evened the score, 22-22, with 11:30 to play in the first.
The Prairie Stars started 8-9 from the floor, but NMU continued to chip away and were getting contributions from everyone to keep themselves in it.
NMU held its largest lead of three points at 31-28 with 7:53 to go in the opening half, but UIS erased that with a 7-0 run and would lead 48-42 at halftime. Springfield got to the line early and often in the opening 20 minutes, converting on 16-19 attempts.
The second half belonged to Sam Privet. He scored seven of the first 10 for NMU, including one of his four triples to cut the deficit to 57-52 with 16:13 to play. Playing against a hot-shooting team on the other side, the Wildcats needed all they could get, and got back-to-back triples from Gittens in the middle of the quarter to keep pace. NMU trailed 68-62 with 9:53 to play.
Back into the game, Privet didn’t miss a beat, scoring five straight for Northern to finally close the deficit to one possession, 70-67. Needing all they could get, Privet went on another personal 5-0 run shortly after, but the ‘Cats continued to trail, 77-74 with 6:15 to play.
A Privet jumper followed by a pair of Parzych free throws cut the deficit to one, 81-80, with under a minute to play. UIS would go 2-2 from the charity stripe with 13 seconds left, leading 83-80 and the Prairie Stars opted to foul instead of playing it out. Smith knocked down a pair with 7 seconds left to get back within one.
After UIS missed a pair of free throws, a poetic connection of Kuehl to Gittens Jr. to Smith and into the net as time expired capped off the thrilling win for the Wildcats.
Up Next
The Wildcats will head to Duluth, Minnesota next weekend to take on Minnesota State Moorhead on Friday, November 22 and Minnesota Duluth on Saturday, November 23.
