Northern Michigan University’s Michael McNabb stretches to get a shot off during a college men’s basketball game played against Roosevelt at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Monday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team has at least an outside shot at moving into first place in the GLIAC with a successful home weekend starting tonight.

The Wildcats have already won their first game this week, knocking off conference newcomer Roosevelt 77-55 at home on Monday, and have two more games at Vandament Arena coming up.

The Wildcats host Wayne State at 7:30 p.m. today before entertaining Saginaw Valley State at 3 p.m. Saturday. Both opponents are in the middle of the pack in the league standings.

The games can be watched online at the FloSports app and will be broadcast on radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point.

Fans can also follow @NMU_MensBBALL and @NMU_Wildcats on X (formerly Twitter) for updates leading up to and during the games, or visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the men’s basketball schedule for links to live video, live statistics, ticket information, the weekend program, game previews and series histories.

NMU is 11-3 overall and 5-1 in the GLIAC while receiving votes in this week’s NCAA Division II poll conducted by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

“I am hoping to get momentum going again and hoping we can play incredibly hard, be tough and play the right way that we have shown,” Northern head coach Matt Majkrzak said.

NMU is in a three-way tie for second place in the GLIAC with its Upper Peninsula brethren — Michigan Tech and Lake Superior State — as all three trail nationally ranked No. 4 Ferris State at 6-0, 16-1 overall. LSSU, by the way, is No. 6 in the country at 14-2 overall.

In the unusual Monday GLIAC game vs. Roosevelt, the Wildcats held the visitors to just 31.7% from the field (19 of 60), the lowest an NMU opponent from Division II has shot this season. Northern forced 10 turnovers and scored 18 points off them, with the 55 points the Lakers scored the third time NMU has kept a GLIAC opponent at least that low on the scoreboard.

And the Wildcats’ offense was led off the bench, with Jackson Dudek putting up a season-high 18 points in just 18 minutes court time by making 7 of 10 shots, including 2 of 4 on 3-pointers. Another bench player, Cal Klesmit, was second in NMU scoring with 11 points as he made a trio of treys.

Dependable Dylan Kuehl added 10 points, as did fellow starter Sam Privet, as each of those players paced Northern rebounders with eight apiece. Kuehl also had team highs of five assists and two steals.

For the season, the Wildcats have been led by their defense, allowing 65.6 points per game, which ranks No. 1 in the GLIAC and 18th nationally. With only the league’s eighth-best offense at 73.8 ppg, Northern is still fourth in scoring margin at plus-8.2 ppg.

For conference games only, the scoring defense is even better at 63.5 ppg, only trailing Tech, and scoring margin again fourth at plus-7.0 ppg.

In addition, NMU is also tops in the GLIAC in opponent rebounds with 30.8 per game and third in rebounding margin at plus-5.2.

And the Wildcats are tied for second with 7.5 steals per game and No. 1 in turnover margin at plus-2.43 a game. Interestingly, the trio of U.P. teams hold down the top three spots in each of those statistics.

Kuehl is ninth in the league in scoring at 15.6 ppg, while teammate Julien Smith is 22nd at 12.2 ppg.

A GLIAC Preseason First Team honoree this fall, Kuehl has already been named twice as GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week this season, having scored in double figures in 13 of 14 games while shooting at least 50% in 11 of his last 12.

In conference games only, Kuehl ups his scoring average to third at 17.3 ppg and is second with a 54.2% field goal percentage.

Kuehl is also tied for seventh with 6.4 rebounds per game, while teammate Sam Privet is 15th at 5.7 a contest.

For free throws, there’s a trio of Wildcats all hovering in the upper half of the 70s in percentage. Smith is ninth at 79.5%, Gerald Gittens Jr. 10th at 78.0% and Kuehl 11th at 76.6%. Smith is also tied for 12th with 1.9 made 3-pointers per game.

Northern’s Brian Parzych is 15th with 2.5 assists a game, Gittens is tied for third with 1.5 steals per outing as teammate Biggie Luster is tied for 10th in that latter category at 1.2 a game.

Wayne State is a fully .500 team coming to Marquette today at 7-7 overall and 3-3 in the GLIAC. But the Warriors have won their last two, beating Wisconsin-Parkside 65-61 and Purdue Northwest 70-67 at home last week.

Though WSU is only 1-5 on the road, Wayne State lost just 75-71 at LSSU and 91-81 at Ferris. The Warriors are the No. 3 shooting team in the league at 45.2% and No. 2 in free throws at a 76.9% clip.

Carmelo Harris is just ahead of Kuehl in scoring at 15.9 ppg, ranking him seventh, while teammates Tamario Adley and Rob Lee Jr. are just in front of NMU’s Smith in 20th at 12.8 ppg and 21st at 12.7 ppg, respectively.

And it’s fortunate that the Wildcats send their opponents to the free-throw line less than any other league team, as Harris is No. 1 in the conference in free throw shooting at 94.0% and Lee tied for second at 91.4%.

In their 83 meetings since the 1934-35 season, Northern leads by the thinnest of margins, 42-41. NMU has won the past four played in Marquette, though Wayne State won last year’s meeting in Detroit, 84-80.

SVSU is looking to get back to .500 at 6-8 overall and 2-4 in the conference as the Cardinals are just 1-4 on the road. Last weekend at home, Saginaw Valley downed Purdue NW 81-68 before losing to Parkside 77-66.

The Cardinals are close to even in scoring, averaging 74.8 ppg while giving up 73.7 ppg. They shoot 43.9% from the field and 32.2% on 3s, but have the second-worst turnover margin in the GLIAC at minus-0.85 per game.

Freddie McIntosh leads SVSU scorers, and is 11th in the league, at 14.9 ppg, with Toodles Seal is 12th at 14.2 ppg.

Elijah Mattingly is just behind Kuehl in rebounding, seventh at 6.3 a game, though he is also second in the league with 1.5 blocked shots per game.

While Northern has one more win than loss over Wayne State, they are one win behind SVSU, 41-40, in that all-time matchup. But the Wildcats have won the past six in the series with a 12.3-point average per win, including 71-56 in Marquette a year ago.

Story contents based mainly on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release previewing the games. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.