Mike Geary Picks Up 400th Career Win
MARQUETTE, Mich. â€Â“ Winning at home is sweet, butbeating a rival at home is even sweeter! Northern Michigan University womenâ€Â™sbasketball team defeated Michigan Tech University for the first time this yearon Monday night at the Berry Events Center. They sealed the victory with ascore of 68-60. Northern Michigan is now 10-4 in the GLIAC and 18-4 overall. Michigan Tech now stands 8-6 in conference play and 13-9 overall. This victoryfor the â€Â˜Cats also marks Mike Gearyâ€Â™s 400th career win as a headcoach.
Michigan Tech came out scoring the first basket of the nightnine seconds into the game with a jumper from Randi Miller. A three-point shotfrom NMUâ€Â™s Emily Samuelson at 19:02 pushed the â€Â˜Cats into the lead 3-2 andsparked a lead that the Wildcats would hold until 5:41 left in the half. An assisted two-pointer from Chelsey MacNeill to Jennifer Swanson would giveMTU the advantage 27-26. Northern Michigan would keep it close holding theHuskies scoreless for the last two minutes and thirty seconds of the firsthalf. The teams left the floor with a score of 37-33 in favor of the visitorsfrom Houghton. At the intermission NMU was shooting 52.4 percent from thefloor (11-21) and MTU was at 43.2 percent from the field (16-37).
A break-a-way lay-up from Samuelson at 19:55 would ignite the scoring for the Green and Gold in the second half, putting the scoreboard at37-35. After one made free throw from MTUâ€Â™s Andrea Novak at 19:31, the â€Â˜Cats held the Huskies scoreless for a span of five minutes. NMU would then take theirfirst lead at 39-38 of the half at 14:55 with a lay-up from Tera Opperman. Thelead would switch back to the Huskies at 40-39 with 14:34 left in regulation with a lay-up from Swanson.
Another Samuelson three-pointer at 13:09 would key the lead for NMU for the rest of the night. The Huskies tried closing in on theâ€Â˜Cats at 2:46 left in the game with at lay-up from Novak narrowing the gap to59-57. A lay-up by Emily Belland and a jumper by Grubaugh gave the â€Â˜Cats the leadat 63-57 with under a minute left in the game. The Huskies made athree-pointer from Novak with 33 ticks left on the clock to narrow the â€Â˜Catslead to 65-60. But made free throws from Samuelson and Opperman sealed the winfor the â€Â˜Cats on the night.
Three â€Â˜Cats scored in double-digits on the night as Samuelsonled the way with 23 points and nine rebounds, just missing a double-double forthe night. Samuelson added six assists and one steal in the win. Grubaughfollowed with 12 points and Opperman added 11. The rebounds were even at37-all, but the offensive advantage went to the Huskies and the defensiveboards went to NMU.
Northern Michigan shot 48.9 percent (23-47) from the field,50 percent (6-12) from the three-point arc and 76.2 percent (16-21) from thefree throw line. Michigan Tech finished the game 35.3 percent from the floor(24-68), 27.8 (5-18) percent from the three-point line and 63.6 percent (7-11) fromthe charity stripe.
The Cats have two games left on their six-game homestand as theface Saginaw Valley on Thursday night (Feb. 29) 5:30 p.m. NMU will concludethe home portion of the regular season on Saturday (Feb. 21) against Lake Superior State.
