Northern Michigan University’s Max Weisbrod, right, dribbles around Southeastern Oklahoma State’s Elijah Hughey at the Lubbock Tip-Off Classic in Lubbock, Tex., on Saturday. The Savage Storm scored a 108-101 victory, while a day later the Wildcats defeated Lubbock Christian 83-69 to open the NMU men’s season. (Photo courtesy NMU)

LUBBOCK, Texas — The Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team began its season in Texas over the weekend and ended the southern road trip with a 1-1 record against a pair of teams they’d never seen before.

The Wildcats played in the Lubbock Tip-Off Classic in Lubbock, Texas, and lost a shootout with Southeastern Oklahoma State 108-101 before coming back a day later and defeating Lubbock Christian 83-69.

NMU gets back on the court this weekend for another tournament, this time at the JustAgame Crossover in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The Wildcats face Upper Iowa at 2 p.m. EST Saturday and Missouri S&T at 2 p.m. EST Sunday. Michigan Tech will play on the same days against the same teams, but in reverse order.

Northern comes home to play its first game at the Berry Events Center in just over a week at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 15, against Lakeland (Wis.).

Here is a review of this past weekend’s action:

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Southeastern Oklahoma St. 108, NMU 101

On Saturday afternoon, despite breaking the 100-point barrier, the highest scorer for the Wildcats was Dylan Kuehl with only 23 points as Northern spread out its scoring with a half-dozen players reaching double figures.

The teams traded the lead throughout with Southeastern Oklahoma State leading 47-46 at halftime. Northern held a lead of no more than six points for most of the first half until the Savage Storm took their first lead at 43-41 with 2:07 left before intermission.

They traded the lead again to start the second half before SOSU took the lead for the final time, 75-74, on a free throw by Aaron Jacob with 9:54 to go.

Though NMU wouldn’t pull even again, the Wildcats did get within one score on multiple occasions, the final time at 97-94 with 2:31 to go on a Max Weisbrod 3-pointer.

Though both teams only shot around 30% on 3s, each shot close to 50% overall from the field, along with being within a few percentage points of 75% on free throws.

The biggest statistical difference probably came in the number of free throws as the Storm made 11 more, going 31 of 41 (76%) while NMU was 20 of 27 (74%).

Kuehl made 7 of 14 shots from the field, including 6 of 7 on 2-pointers, and 8 of 9 free throws in leading Northern scorers.

The Wildcats’ Sam Schultz was the only player with double-digit rebounds with 15 as he also scored 15 points.

Also for NMU, Carson Smith scored 19 points, making 4 of 4 free throws and three triples, while leading the team with three steals and sharing team honors with five assists.

Weisbrod added 14 points with 4 of 8 on treys and also five assists, Riley Brooks scored 13 points with three triples, and Brian Parzych put in 10 points.

Southeast Oklahoma’s Brennen Burns led all players with 31 points, while teammate Cody Clouet had 26.

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NMU 83, Lubbock Christian 69

On Sunday night against the host team, Weisbrod led Northern scorers with 18 points that included the same 4-of-8 shooting on 3s he had the day before.

Five NMU players reached double-figures scoring as Kuehl had 13 points, Parzych and Brooks 12 apiece and Schultz 10. All of Brooks points came on triples as he joined Weisbrod in going 4 of 8 from beyond the arc.

The main shooting difference, like the day before, was that the winning team shot a lot more free throws — the Wildcats were 20 of 27 (74%) while LCU was only 11 of 22 (50%).

But NMU also held a decisive advantage in rebounding, 41-26, as Schultz again broke into double figures with 11.

Ethan Duncan led Lubbock with 18 points, while Tiras Morton had 12 points and 12 rebounds.

In this game, the Chaps held the lead throughout the first 12 minutes, including at 17-10 about seven minutes in.

Kuehl hit a jumper with 7:41 left in the first half to give NMU its first lead, 24-23. The lead bounced back and forth the rest of the first half until Northern emerged with a 42-39 edge at halftime after Weisbrod hit a 3 with 34 seconds to go.

With Weisbrod hitting another triple just 10 seconds into the second half, the Wildcats quickly extended their lead to double digits, 51-41, barely more than four minutes after intermission following a Kuehl jumper.

Their lead expanded to as many as 15 points, 59-44, following a Sam Privet layup with 13:03 left, but Lubbock cut it back into single digits soon after, getting as close as 67-62 with 4:02 to go after a traditional three-point play by Najeeb Muhammad.

Then the Wildcats went on their last extended run, this one 9-1, over the next 90 seconds to make it 76-63 and kept the lead in double digits the rest of the way.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.