Northern Michigan University’s Michael McNabb, left, is triple-teamed by the Northland defense as he brings the ball into the lane during their college men’s basketball game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Dec. 21. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Today’s games: The NMU women’s and men’s teams play at Grand Valley State today, the women at 1 p.m. and men at 3 p.m.; Radio: WUPT 100.3 FM The Point

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GRAND RAPIDS — Scoring 16 points in a row can do wonders for a basketball team — just ask the Northern Michigan University men’s squad.

The Wildcats reeled off that many consecutive points starting in the latter stages of the first half to turn a 17-point deficit into a more manageable one-point shortage on the way to their 60-52 victory at Davenport on Thursday evening.

NMU remained in a tie for the top spot in the GLIAC at 3-0 while its sixth win in a row improved its overall record to 9-2. The Wildcats are tied with Ferris State and Michigan Tech, the latter after defeating Grand Valley State on Thursday 59-58 to give the Lakers their first conference loss.

Northern takes the short trip over to Allendale to take on GVSU at 3 p.m. today.

NMU, which also won its first game of the new year for the sixth straight time under head coach Matt Majkrzak, took a brief 4-2 lead in the early going before DU took control for most of the rest of the first half.

The Panthers (4-7, 0-3 GLIAC) built a 10-point lead, 21-11, with 9:09 left in the half on a Isaiah Foster jumper, then worked their way to their biggest leads of 32-15 with 5:02 left on a Joey Cabana 3-pointer.

Then for nearly 10 minutes of game time spanning both halves, the Wildcats not only took control, but pitched a shutout at Davenport.

It started with a Michael McNabb layup with 4:02 to go to cut the deficit to 15 before teammate Gerald Gittens Jr. put in the final points of the first half on a “traditional” three-point play with a layup and free throw with 1:18 left that cut DU’s lead to 32-26 at intermission.

Northern’s Sam Privet opened the second half the same way Gittens closed it, pumping in another traditional three-point play, also including a layup, that got NMU within 32-29 with 19:08 to go.

Neither team scored for nearly three minutes, but when they did, it was the Wildcats getting the final points of the 16-0 run on a Brian Parzych layup with 16:22 to go as Northern trailed just 32-31.

DU finally scored again with 16:01 left, ending a drought that lasted one tick more than nine minutes.

After a little back and forth with the lead over the next few minutes, NMU went ahead for good with 12:19 left when Dylan Kuehl sank a triple to make it 42-40.

But Northern wasn’t really able to take control until the game’s last few minutes. Leading just 50-48 with 4:15 to go, NMU reeled off an 8-0 run to go up 58-48 when Julien Smith hit a 3 with 2:12 left. The lead remained at least at eight points the rest of the way.

Kuehl led all scorers with 19 points, including a pair of 3s, as he also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds and blocked two shots.

Gittens added 11 points, seven rebounds and two steals, while Privet had seven points.

Cabana paced the Panthers with 16 points.

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