MARQUETTE, Mich. â€Â“ The Northern Michigan University womenâ€Â™s basketball team shot better from the floor and won the battle onthe boards, but the only category that counted the â€Â˜Cats lost the score on thescoreboard.  Michigan Tech defeated the â€Â˜Cats on Tuesday night at the Berry Events Center by a score of 54-51.  NMU falls to 10-6 overall on the season and 3-5in the GLIAC.  The Huskies improve to 14-3 and 8-0 respectively.

MTU held the lead the entire first half.  About half waythrough the half the Huskies held an 18-11 lead.  Emily Belland made one of hertwo free throws at 4:38 to cut the lead to 24-21.  The â€Â˜Cats would get towithin three two more times before the end of the half.  Baskets by TiffanyGrubaugh and Michelle Moard cut the MTU lead each time.  NMU was 10-23 from thefloor for the first half for 43.5 percent.  The Huskies were 10-29 for 34.5percent.  Both teams were 2-7 from the arc (28.6 percent).  The only differencewas that MTU was a perfect 6-6 from the charity stripe.  The â€Â˜Cats were 3-5 for60 percent from the line. 

The second half was a little different as the lead changedsides 11 times and there were two ties.  NMU took their first lead of the gameat 33-31 when Belland made a two-pointer to give the â€Â˜Cats the 30-28 advantageat the 16:36 mark.  For the next seven plus minutes of the game the Huskiescontrolled the tempo of the game and had their largest lead in that span of42-35 at 12:36.  The â€Â˜Cats final lead of the game came when Moard made a lay-upwith 6:20 left in the game and the make the score 46-45.

Sarah Stream of MTU sank two free throws with 27 secondsleft in the game to give the Huskies the 53-46 lead.  Tera Opperman made alay-up with 20 seconds left in the game to cut the lead to five points (53-48). Stream then turned it over and Opperman connected from long distance for athree-pointer, the score was now 53-51, as the â€Â˜Cats were still breathing. Stream then made one of her two free throws for the three-point lead once again(54-51).  Oppermanâ€Â™s three-pointer at the buzzer was off and the game was over.

Opperman was the lone â€Â˜Cat in double-figures as she had 10points for the game.  Moard had a team-high eight rebounds.  Grubaugh and MariaKasza both had four assists.  Stream led Tech with a game-high 21 points. 

The â€Â˜Cats were 21-60 from the floor for 35 percent, 5-18from the arc (27.8 percent) and 4-7 from the line (57.1 percent).  NMU held theHuskies to 30.4 percent shooting from the floor for the game (17-56).  But MTUmade 14 trips to the free throw line and sank 13 throws for 92.9 percent. NMUhad one more rebound than the Huskies at 41-40.

NMU will hit the road for a Saturday game (Jan. 22) at Ashland.