SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich.â€Â“ The NMU womenâ€Â™s basketball team traveled across the U.P. on Thursday toface the second place team in the GLIAC North Division the Lake Superior StateLakers.  The Lakers held a slight fourpoint lead at halftime at 46-42 and held on to down the â€Â˜Cats on Thursday night87-72.

With the loss the â€Â˜Cats havedropped two of their last four games and are 14-3 overall on the season and 6-3in the GLIAC.  The Lakers improve to 15-3and 8-2 in the conference.

For a span of about four plusminutes in the first half the lead went back and forth a couple of times as theâ€Â˜Cats held a three-point lead three times during that span.  NMUâ€Â™s final three-point lead came at 6:55 of the first half when Tera Opperman madea jumper to make the score 29-26.  At the5:30 mark of the opening half, Tiffany Grubaugh made one of her two free throwsto give the â€Â˜Cats a 32-30 lead before the Lakers would tie the game at32-all.  The home team controlled thetempo the rest of the half.

NMU had the lead in the second halfwith 15:39 left in regulation whenEmily Samuelson hit a two-pointer to give the â€Â˜Cats the lead at 52-51.  Over the next four minutes the Lakers scored14 points to the â€Â˜Cats one to take the 65-53 lead with under 10 minutes left inthe game. 

Samuelson led the team on the nightwith 19 points.  Grubaugh added 18 pointsas Andrea Brooke had 14.  Grubaugh alsohad a team-high nine rebounds.  As a teamthe â€Â˜Cats committed 18 turnovers on the night and only had six assists for the game.  NMU was out-rebounded by 20 as the Lakers had50 rebounds to 30 for the â€Â˜Cats.  NMUonly had seven offensive boards for the game as Lake State had 22.

For the game NMU shot 49 percentfrom the floor (25-51), 26.7 percent from the three-point line (4-15) and 62.1percent from the free throw line (18-29).

The second game of the two-gameroad swing will find the â€Â˜Cats at Saginaw Valley Stateon Saturday (Jan. 31).