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THIS STORY, PHOTO COURTESY OF NMU SPORTS INFORMATION
HOUGHTON, Mich. – Thursday night was quite the impressive feature in the Upper Peninsula, as the No. 14 Northern Michigan women's basketball team went on the road up US-41 and dominated rival Michigan Tech wire-to-wire in a 74-46 victory.
Dominant would be an understatement, as the Wildcats controlled nearly every facet of the contest. The Wildcats never trailed and opened each of the first three quarters on an 11-2 run to never give the Huskies, or their fans, a glimmer of hope.
Leading the way was senior Sarah Newcomer, who poured in a career-high 27 points. She scored 24 of her 27 in the first 23 minutes of the game before she could take a back seat with a commanding lead. She also scored 19 of NMU's first 30 points to kickstart the night and hit seven triples. Overall, she was 10-16 (62.5%) from the field.
Newcomer was blistering all night long, constantly knocking down contested shots and rarely even needing the rim, leaving fans of each team sliding back in their seats, stunned, at what they were witnessing.
Newcomer got the Green and Gold going, and the supporting cast chipped in after that. Alyssa Hill scored 16 points, going a perfect 7-7 from the field. She also scored her 1,000th career point late in the first half. Hill led the team with eight rebounds, pacing a 43-26 advantage on the glass for NMU.
CJ Romero also found double figures with 13 points, with 11 coming in the second half. She was 3-4 from three and 4-4 at the charity stripe while leading the team with five assists to go along with five boards. No other Wildcat scored more than four points.
The Wildcats made their difference at the three-point line, where they went 12-28 (42.9%) and held Tech to a 1-11 (9.1%) clip. NMU was 25-57 (43.9%) overall while the Huskies were 16-51 (31.4%).
Northern improved to 13-2 overall and 4-1 in the GLIAC, while dropping their rival to 9-4 overall and 3-2 in conference matches. No Husky scored in double figures.
THIS STORY, PHOTO COURTESY OF MTU ATHLETICS
HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech women's basketball team dropped a 74-46 decision to a red-hot No. 14 nationally-ranked Northern Michigan team backed by a career-high 27 points by Sarah Newcomer at the SDC Gymnasium on Thursday evening.
"We've got to come out and execute better to start–offensively and defensively," said Michigan Tech head coach Sam Clayton. "I know Northern is a really good team and I thought they got to do what they wanted. We didn't move the ball at all and tried going one-on-one and didn't play inside out."
Michigan Tech (9-4, 3-2 GLIAC) trailed from the opening tip as the visitors knocked down their first three shots, two from distance and held a nine-point lead twice, at the 7:07 mark (11-2) and to conclude the quarter (19-10).
Both teams endured scoring droughts and struggled to take care of the ball, as the duo combined for 11 turnovers in 10 minutes. Sarah Newcomer was the difference maker with 11 points on 5-8 shooting and 4-7 from trey.
Northern Michigan (13-2, 4-1 GLIAC) could do no wrong in the second quarter, opening the stanza on a 14-4 run extending to the 4:43 mark, finishing the quarter by outscoring the Huskies 25-10 on 9-14 shooting (64.3) while connecting on 3-5 3-pointers to head into halftime with the largest lead of the day at 44-20. NMU's defense stood tall, holding the Huskies without a 3-pointer through halftime (0-7) and 8-27 from the field (29.6%) while handily winning the rebounding battle 22-13.
The Wildcats continued to handle the Huskies in the second half, holding the Black & Gold to 10 points in the third quarter while pouring on 20. NMU earned its largest lead late in the third quarter following free throws by CJ Romero (64-28).
After scoring 10 points in each of the first three quarters, the Huskies won the fourth quarter 16-10 with Kendall Standfest hitting the first 3-pointer of the game at the 6:16 mark, although the Wildcats would go on to win 74-46.
Alyssa Wypych led the team in scoring with nine points as five Huskies accrued three rebounds.
Alyssa Hill had a game-high eight boards to go with 16 points.
