Northern Michigan University’s Gerald Gittens Jr. starts his drive toward the basket before deciding to pass the ball against Michigan Tech at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Thursday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — Maybe a quarter-mile of fire hose run from Lake Superior to Northern Michigan University’s Vandament Arena could’ve cooled down the Michigan Tech men’s basketball team for awhile on Thursday night.

Not much else could slow down the shooters on the Huskies’ men’s basketball team in their 88-65 victory over the Wildcats on Thursday evening.

The loss snapped NMU’s seven-game winning streak and handed the Wildcats their first GLIAC loss this season. Northern is now 10-3 overall and 4-1 in the league, tied with their two Upper Peninsula rivals — MTU and Lake Superior State — for second place and a game behind league leader Ferris State at 5-0.

Tech actually did all its hot shooting in the first half Thursday, blistering the nets at a 71.4% pace (20 of 28) for all its shots from the floor then, including making 60% (9 of 15) on 3-pointers.

NMU had a much more pedestrian 33.3% from the field (9 of 27) and just 10% (1 of 10) behind the arc before halftime.

That was how the Huskies were able to produce a huge 51-25 lead at intermission over a previously hot Northern team on its new home floor.

Tech raced out to a 5-0 lead just over two minutes in on a Marcus Tomashek jumper and 3-pointer, with the lead expanding to double digits at 20-9 about 7 1/2 minutes in and reaching the 20-point mark at 33-12 with 9:07 left in the first half.

It even hit the 30-point plateau at 49-19 with 2:31 left before halftime on a Dawson Nordgaard layup.

Tech’s high-water mark was a 31-point lead, 75-44, with 9:37 left following a Pete Calcaterra layup. After that, the Wildcats eroded some of that lead as they attempted to make a game of it down the stretch.

They got as close as 15 points, 79-64, with 3:23 to go after a Michael McNabb layup, but never could get their deficit even back to single digits.

After the hot shooting to start the game, the Huskies cooled off while still shooting solidly in the second half. MTU made 46.2% after intermission (12 of 26), including 44.4% on 3s (4 of 9), while Northern made 37.5% then (12 of 32) from the floor with 38.5% on 3s (5 of 13).

Dylan Kuehl, just coming off his second GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week honor, led the Wildcats with 20 points as he made 8 of 12 from the field, including 3 of 4 on triples. He also pulled down a team-high six rebounds while not committing a turnover or being called for a foul in 28 minutes court time.

Jackson Dudek came off the Northern bench to score 14 points, including a 3, while pulling in four rebounds. Like Kuehl, he also didn’t commit a turnover or make a foul in his 15 minutes.

Derek Merwick added nine points and three rebounds, while Julien Smith had seven points, including 5 of 5 free throws.

Another two-time conference player of the week this season, MTU’s Tomashek led all players with 33 points with three triples and 8 of 10 free throws as he also dished out a game-high five assists.

Teammate Ty Fernholz pumped in 22 points, making 5 of 8 treys.

This was just the start of a four-game homestand for the Wildcats, thought they have an unusual GLIAC Saturday off today before hosting league newcomer Roosevelt at 7:30 p.m. Monday. The home games continue through next week with Wayne State in town at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saginaw Valley State at 3 p.m. next Saturday.

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