HILLSDALE, Mich. - Saturday afternoon at HillsdaleCollege the NMU menâ€Ã‚™s basketball team finally won a close game.  Steve Watts made two free throws with 42seconds left in the game to tie it at 54 all. Milan Azanjac, after a steal by Marco Volcy, made one of his two freethrows for the final margin of 55-54. Azanjac was sent to the line with one tick of the clock left in thegame.  NMU is now 8-6 overall on theseason and 4-2 in the GLIAC.  Hillsdalefalls to 7-7 and 0-5 in the conference.

The Chargers held a two point lead at the half at33-31.  To start the second half theChargers went on a 12-7 run before the â€Ã‚˜Cats would start to chip away at thelead.  The â€Ã‚˜Cats were down by one twicein the second half before Watts went to the free throw line.  Adrian Whitten sank a three-pointer with6:29 left in the game to make it 48-47. Hillsdale would score a lay up to take the lead by three.  Billy Hill hit a jumper with 5:26 left tocut the lead again to one at 50-49. Hillsdale was up by four when Azanjac converted a lay up with 1:33 leftin the game to make the score 54-52. That set the stage for Watts and Azanjac to win the game for the â€Ã‚˜Cats.

Watts led the charge for NMU with 13 points and sevenrebounds.  Azanjac ended the game with 10points.  Matt Mlynarchek led Hillsdalewith15 points and 14 rebounds.

For the game, the â€Ã‚˜Cats shot 41.7 percent from he floor(20-48), 36.8 from the three-point line (7-19) and 42.1 percent from the freethrow line (8-19).  The Chargers didout-rebound the â€Ã‚˜Cats 37 to 30. 

The â€Ã‚˜Cats will be in action again on Monday night (Jan. 13)in Detroit, Mich. at Wayne State.