MARQUETTE, Mich. â€Â“ The Northern Michigan University womenâ€Â™s basketball team needed a spark on Tuesday night against Finlandia. Maria Kasza came off the bench to score a career-high, 25 points, in herseventh game in a Wildcat uniform.  The â€Â˜Cats were up 41-36 at the half, butturned it on in the second half for the 87-52 win.  With the win the â€Â˜Cats are6-1 on the season.  The Lions fall to 3-4 on the campaign.

Kasza had eight points after the first 20 minutes of play. She was 7-11 from the floor, 4-6 in three-pointers and 7-8 from the line forthe game.  She also had seven rebounds, three assists and six steals. Finlandia shot a sizzling 63.2 percent from the floor in the first half(12-19).

The â€Â˜Cats turned the five point lead at halftime into adouble-digit lead at 46-36 when Allison Carroll converted a lay-up with twominutes gone in the second half.  NMU would cruise the rest of the wayextending the lead to as many as 36 points.

For the game the â€Â˜Cats were 31-76 from the floor (40.8percent), 6-16 from the arc (37.5 percent) and 19-25 (76 percent) from thecharity stripe.  NMU had the advantage on the boards by out-rebounding theLions by 15 at 46-31.

Two other â€Â˜Cats were in the double-digit scoring column for the game as Carroll netted 17 points and Michelle board off the bench had 10.  Carrollended the night with a double-double with her 10 rebounds.  Moard added sevenboards to the stat sheet.  Tera Opperman had six of the teamâ€Â™s 21 assists.  NMUended the game with 20 steals.

NMU will jump back into GLIAC play this Saturday atNorthwood (Dec. 11).