BIG RAPIDS, Mich. â€Â“ Down by two points at the halfthe â€Â˜Cats had a bit of cold shooting in the second half as they were defeatedby the Ferris State University Bulldogs on Thursday night 69-51.  NMU only madesix shots from the floor in the second half as they scored 20 points in thehalf. Ã‚  With the loss the â€Â˜Cats are now 15-11 overall and 9-8 in the GLIAC. Ferris is now 13-13 and 13-4 in the conference.

Billy Hill made a jumper with time running out in the firsthalf to narrow the Bulldogs lead to 33-31 after the first 20 minutes of play. The difference in the first half was the Bulldogs had one more field goal andtwo more three-pointers than the â€Â˜Cats.  The â€Â˜Cats did make two more freethrows than the home team in the first half.  NMU was 12-27 in the first halffrom the floor for 44.4 percent, 1-8 from the arc for 12.5 percent and 6-9 fromthe free throw line for 66.7 percent.

The second half the â€Â˜Cats took the lead at 35-34 on athree-pointer by Steve Watts less than a minute into the half.  FSU took thelead by one at 35-34, but the â€Â˜Cats ran off five points in a row, thanks to aHill three-pointer and a lay-up by Marco Volcy, to take the lead once again at39-35.  The â€Â˜Cats took their final lead of the half at 43-42 on a Matt LePagetip-in at the 13:39 mark of the half.  Ferris took control of the game the restof the way as they had a double-digit lead with less than five minutes toplay.  For the second half the â€Â˜Cats shot 22.2 percent (6-27) from the floor.

Antwuan Holt led the â€Â˜Cats on the night with 16 points. Volcy was the only other â€Â˜Cat to crack the double-digit mark with 10 points. For the game the â€Â˜Cats were 18-54 from the floor (33.3 percent), 4-19 fromthree-point land (21.1 percent) and 11-17 from the line (64.7 percent).  TheBulldogs pulled down 37 rebounds on the night to 33 for the â€Â˜Cats.

NMU will conclude the regular season on Saturday (Feb. 28)at Grand Valley.