SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. â€Ã‚“ The NMU menâ€Ã‚™s basketballteam built a 13 point lead at halftime and held on in the second half to pickup a big GLIAC menâ€Ã‚™s basketball win at Lake Superior State on Saturdayafternoon by a score of 74-68.  NMU snappedtheir four-game losing skid and are now 13-11 overall on the season and 9-7 inthe GLIAC.  LSSU is now 12-14 and 6-11.

For the first half the Lakers shot a dismal 29.4 percentfrom the floor (10-34) and the â€Ã‚˜Cats took advantage of that with 40 percentshooting (14-35) to take the lead.  Overthe final seven minutes of the first half the â€Ã‚˜Cats went on an 18-2 run.  Billy Hill led the way in the first halfwith 17 points.  Hill had seven of the18 points on the run

The â€Ã‚˜Cats largest lead in the second half was when the squadheld a 44-31 lead with 15:52 left in the game. The Lakers came as close as two points with 30 second left in thegame.  Made free throws by Antwaun Holtand Marco Volcy in the final seconds of the game sealed the win for the â€Ã‚˜Cats.

Hill and Holt both had 19 points to share the team-highhonors.  Ben Dewar was the game-highscorer with 20 points.  Holt and MilanAzanjac led the way on the boards for the â€Ã‚˜Cats with 11 and 10 reboundsrespectively.

NMU ended the game with 43.9 percent shooting from the floor(25-57) while the Lakers were shooting 36.5 percent (23-63).  Both teams were about the same fromthree-point land as the â€Ã‚˜Cats were 9-27 (33.3 percent) and the Lakers were10-31 (32.3 percent).  From the line theLakers did have the better percentage at 75 percent (12-16) while the â€Ã‚˜Catsstruggled at 60 percent (15-25).  On theboards the â€Ã‚˜Cats dominated with 45 rebounds to LSSUâ€Ã‚™s 33 rebounds.  NMU had 12 offensive rebounds on theafternoon.

NMU has three games left on the docket for the regularseason.  Two of those games are at home,as the first one will be against Ferris State on Thursday night (Feb. 20) at7:30 p.m.