MIDLAND, Mich. â€Ã‚“ The Northern Michigan Universitymenâ€Ã‚™s basketball team kept in close on Thursday night at Northwood.  The game was almost even in ever categoryexcept one, the scoreboard as the Timberwolves prevailed 70-63.  For the â€Ã‚˜Cats it was their fourth loss in arow as they drop to 12-11 overall and 8-7 in the GLIAC.  Northwood improves to 10-13 and 6-9.

The two teams kept in close in the first half as theTimberwolves built an 11 point lead at the 5:59 mark of the first half (31-20).  NMU then went on an 11 to zero run to tiethe game at 31-all with a little over three minutes left in the firsthalf.  David Noel made a three-pointerwith a little over a minute left in the first half to bring the â€Ã‚˜Cats withinthree points at the intermission (37-34).

The â€Ã‚˜Cats used a 12 to eight run to take the lead at the10:55 mark of the second half at 46-45. Northwood took the lead back at 10:13 at 48-46 and they kept the leadfor about five minutes until Steve Watts made a three-pointer at 5:23 to tiethe game at 54-all.  Northwood used twothree-pointers in a span of 40 seconds to take the lead again.  With 1:40 left in the game, Noel made alay-up to give the â€Ã‚˜Cats new life at 63-all. Ã‚ The Timberwolves would rattle off their final seven points of the gamefor the final margin and hold the â€Ã‚˜Cats without a basket.

Antwuan Holt led the â€Ã‚˜Cats on the night with 15 points.  Watts and Marco Volcy both had 13 markersfor the game.  Watts led the â€Ã‚˜Cats onthe boards with eight rebounds.  NemanjaKreckovic led the Timberwolves with 24 points.

For the game NMU was 23-52 from the floor for 44.2 percentwhile Northwood was 24-53 for 45.3 percent. The Timberwolves made half of their three-pointers (11-22) while theâ€Ã‚˜Cats were 7-17 (41.2 percent). Rebounds were a dead even 31 each. Northwood with nine offensive rebounds had one more than NMU.  But, NMU had 23 defensive rebounds which wasone more than Northwood. Ã‚ ÃƒÃ‚‚  From thefree throw line the â€Ã‚˜Cats were 10-16 (62.5 percent) while the Timberwolves were11-15 (73.3 percent).

The â€Ã‚˜Cats will look to get back on the winning side with agame at Lake Superior State University on Saturday.