Northern Michigan University’s Madison Schroeder, left, shoots while defended by Michigan Tech’s Janie Tormanen during their game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Jan. 9. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

SAULT STE. MARIE — There’s defense, and there’s DEFENSE.

The all-capital-letter version was apparently what the Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team employed for at least a long while at Lake Superior State on Saturday afternoon in a 75-37 road victory.

The Wildcats not only blanked LSSU to the tune of a 19-0 second-quarter shutout, but bracketed more defense around period No. 2 for a 30-0 run that turned Lake State’s 15-12 lead late in the opening quarter into a 42-15 NMU advantage about three minutes into the third stanza.

Northern improved to 13-5 overall and 7-3 in the GLIAC to take over third place alone after Wisconsin-Parkside fell 57-51 at last-place Davenport, also Saturday.

The Wildcats are a game behind second-place Ferris State and three back of national No. 1 Grand Valley State, which is a perfect 10-0 in conference encounters. Northern moved a game ahead of Parkside, which is 6-4, and has a game and a half on Wayne State at 5-4 as the Warriors host eighth-place Roosevelt today.

LSSU, meanwhile, fell into a three-tie for the bottom of the 11-team GLIAC at 2-8, and is also 5-13 overall.

NMU limited the Lakers into 0-of-12 shooting in the second quarter, along with four turnovers then. There was 12 seconds short of 14 minutes on the game clock between Lake State points.

The Wildcats’ Sydney Whitehouse led all scorers with a career-high 16 points coming off the bench, as she was clinically efficient — she made 7 of 9 shots from the field, including 2 of 3 from 3-point range, while not being able to even attempt a free throw. She also had two rebounds, a steal and didn’t commit a turnover in 17 minutes court time.

Starter Alyssa Hill, who also saw the court for only 17 minutes, was next with 15 points as she also made 7 of 9 shots, all 2-pointers. She added in six rebounds, two assists and also didn’t commit a turnover.

Teammate Sarah Newcomer had 12 points, hitting 3 of 6 triples, to go with five rebounds and a game-high five assists. Mackenzie Holzwart scored nine points with a pair of 3s, while Abi Fraaza pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds and made four assists to go with a single point despite playing just 14 minutes.

And Alyssa Nimz blocked three shots — more than every other player on both teams combined — while making four rebounds and scoring four points in 16 minutes.

Grace Bradford paced LSSU with 12 points.

Not too surprisingly, the Wildcats had a huge advantage shooting the ball, basically 2-to-1 percentage-wise from the field. Northern made 51% (28 of 55) overall, while the Lakers were good on just 26% (14 of 54), and on 3-pointers, the Wildcats hit at a 35% rate (8 of 23), while Lake State was just 18% (4 of 22).

NMU also had a massive 46-26 rebounding edge even as both teams turned the ball over 15 times.

Despite the lopsided nature of the final score, the opening quarter was quite competitive. Newcomer hit a pair of triples in the first 66 seconds to put Northern up 6-0 right away, but the Lakers answered with a streak of their own to go ahead 7-6 with 5:56 left in the first.

NMU re-emerged with 2-pointers by Whitehouse, Jacy Weisbrod and Kayla Tierney to retake a 12-7 edge two minutes later, but LSSU again answered with an 8-0 streak that put the home ahead 15-12 with 50 seconds remaining in the period.

And everything came to a halt for the Lakers’ offense after that.

First, Whitehouse made a layup in the dying seconds of the first quarter to get Northern within 15-14 entering the second. Then five Wildcats scored in varying ways and fashions in period No. 2 to give the visitors a 33-15 lead at halftime.

NMU also rolled up the first nine points of the second half on a pair of Holzwart treys, a Hill layup and a Newcomer free throw to build their team’s 27-point lead, the biggest it would be until the fourth.

Leading 52-27 after three quarters, Northern steadily built its advantage until Tierney hit a 3 with 25 seconds remaining to make the final margin its biggest lead of the day, 38 points.

The Wildcats may want to bottle up some of that defense for this week when they host No. 1 Grand Valley at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Two days later, at noon Saturday, struggling Davenport will visit, though the Panthers didn’t struggle so much in their upset of Parkside on Saturday.

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