The Wildcats hit the road — or more likely stay on the road — for a game in Kenosha, Wisconsin, against Wisconsin-Parkside at 8:30 p.m. EST today, then venture around the southern end of Lake Michigan to Hammond, Indiana, to close the regular season against Purdue Northwest at 4 p.m. EST Saturday.

It’s likely the NMU team just stayed on the road, considering they played — and defeated — conference newcomer Roosevelt in Chicago on Monday evening.

Northern is 17-9 overall and 11-7 in the league. With four home-court spots available in the GLIAC tourney opening round, the Wildcats are in a dogfight for the final position, tied for fourth with Parkside, which is also 11-7, a half-game ahead of Grand Valley State at 11-8, and only a full game ahead of seventh-place Wayne State at 10-8.

Those schools are just about out of range of the three frontrunners. Michigan Tech leads the league at 15-3, Lake Superior State is second at 14-4 and Ferris State is two games ahead of NMU and Parkside at 13-5.

Northern Michigan University’s Dylan Kuehl, left, breaks free on a fast break past Ferris State’s Reece Hazelton during their GLIAC men’s basketball game played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Feb. 15. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Each has two games left, today and Saturday, except Grand Valley, which wraps up its season by hosting Roosevelt on Saturday.

Northern should be in the most favorable position to grab fourth place, but that all depends on winning tonight. If the Wildcats do win, they’ll be a game up on Parkside and all the other teams close to them with Saturday’s finale against the conference’s second-to-last-place team.

However, if NMU loses, the Wildcats fall a game back of Parkside with the Rangers hosting league-leading MTU on Saturday. A Northern loss today would also mean NMU and Parkside split their season series — Northern won 73-62 in Marquette way back on Dec. 7 — and other tiebreakers would have to be invoked if the Wildcats can get back into a deadlock with Parkside.

In addition, GVSU and Wayne State might also be involved in that kind of tie, necessitating a complicated set of tiebreakers.

This all comes about because the NMU won at Roosevelt 75-68 on Monday night, breaking a three-game losing streak that all came against nationally ranked teams — the three ahead of Northern in the GLIAC standings.

Today’s and Saturday’s games can be watched online on FloHoops and are also available on radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point. Or follow @NMU_MensBBALL and @NMU_Wildcats on X (formerly Twitter) for updates leading up to and during games, or visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the men’s basketball schedule for links to live video, live audio, live statistics, game previews and team histories.

On Monday, the Wildcats didn’t put their victory away until using an 11-2 run that started with about five minutes left, turning a tenuous 60-59 lead into a more dominant 71-60 advantage. In that stretch, Northern’s Gerald Gittens Jr. hit a 2-pointer and 3-pointer, Dylan Kuehl sank three free throws when he was fouled on a 3-point shot attempt, and Brian Parzych sank a 3.

Roosevelt, which is only 8-18 overall and 5-13 in the league, didn’t back down at home during the final few minutes, pulling back within 73-68 with 1:02 left before Kuehl extended the lead back to three possessions with a fastbreak, one-handed dunk with 55 seconds to go that accounted for the final points of the night.

In the previous week, the Wildcats lost 67-64 at No. 22 Michigan Tech on Feb. 20.

Kuehl, who scored a team-high 23 points Monday, moved into the fifth spot in GLIAC scoring at 16.6 points per game, while he’s in that same position in league games only, but at 17.6 ppg. He’s scored in double figures in all but one game this season, which includes a career-high 31-point outing vs. Ferris two weekends ago.

The two-time GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week is second in the conference shooting 49.8% from the floor and fourth in rebounding, pulling down 6.8 per game.

Defense continues to be the Wildcats’ calling card. While their offense is just eighth of 11 teams at 73.6 ppg, the defense ranks third at 68.1 ppg. NMU allows a league-low 31.8 rebounds per game with a GLIAC third-best plus-4.2 margin per game.

Parkside had been on a five-game winning streak before falling at LSSU and Ferris last weekend, though the Rangers are a solid 9-3 at home.

Parkside is actually even more defensive-minded than Northern, ranking 10th in scoring at 66.8 ppg but second in scoring defense at 67.8 ppg, meaning they are on average outscored by 1.0 points per contest.

The Rangers have a pair of players right on the edge of the top 10 in the GLIAC in scoring, Josiah Palmer tied for ninth at 15.5 ppg and Jack Rose 11th at 15.3 ppg. Palmer also leads the league with 4.9 assists per game, a full assist better than everyone else.

Purdue Northwest is just the opposite of NMU and Parkside as a team involved in some of the highest scoring games in the GLIAC, ranking third in scoring at 77.9 ppg but allowing the most points, 81.1 ppg.

That probably explains the Pride’s 6-20 overall and 3-15 conference records as Purdue NW is a modest 4-8 at home this season.

The Pride’s Collin Albert is tied with Parkside’s Palmer for ninth in league scoring at 15.5 ppg, while teammate Detalian Brown is 17th at 12.9 ppg. And Dalton Gayman’s 7.3 rebounds per game is tops in the conference.

Northern defeated Purdue NW 70-54 at Vandament Arena on Dec. 5.

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