Northern Michigan University’s Mackenzie Holzwart drives with the ball in a game against Michigan Tech played at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Jan. 9. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team did its part to set up this afternoon’s second-place showdown in the GLIAC at Vandament Arena.

The Wildcats defeated last-place Lake Superior State 67-44 on Thursday evening while fellow second-place team Ferris State also won, 70-67 at seventh-place Michigan Tech.

NMU, which extended its winning streak to four games, and Ferris remain deadlocked in second place as they meet at 1 p.m. today at Northern’s arena. After today, teams will have just four games remaining to play in the league before the GLIAC Tournament kicks off the first week of March.

The Wildcats and FSU are both 11-4 in the league, NMU at 17-6 overall and Ferris at a similar 17-7.

Nearly unanimous national No. 1 Grand Valley State — the Lakers received 22 of 23 first-place votes this week — has all but clinched the league regular-season title with a perfect 15-0 conference mark.

But two teams are nipping at the second-place teams’ heels, Wisconsin-Parkside and Wayne State each a game back at 10-5.

On Thursday in Marquette, the Wildcats did most of their damage in the middle two quarters, outscoring their guests by 10 points in each period to turn a six-point lead after one quarter into a 26-point laugher entering the fourth.

Northern’s Sydney Whitehouse came off the bench and led all scorers with a season-high 17 points as she made 6 of 8 from the field and 5 of 7 free throws. She also grabbed five rebounds.

Negaunee High School product Alyssa Hill was next with 14 points despite playing just 16 minutes in her starting role. She made 7 of 11 from the field and didn’t get to attempt a free throw as she also grabbed five rebounds.

NMU leading scorer Jacy Weisbrod pitched in with 13 points, hitting 5 of 9 from the field, including 3 of 4 on 3-pointers. Like Hill, she didn’t get to attempt a free throw, but did grab four rebounds.

The Wildcats’ Alyssa Nimz pulled down a team-high seven rebounds while scoring four points, while teammate Abi Fraaza had a team-high three assists to go with five rebounds and three points. In all, each of the dozen Northern players who saw action had a rebound with 11 of them scoring.

Gracey Metz paced the Lakers (5-18, 2-13 GLIAC) with 11 points, seven rebounds and three steals.

NMU outshot Lake State, making 46% (27 of 59) to just 30% (17 of 56) for their guests, and also held a 44-32 rebounding advantage.

Despite the Lakers jumping out to an 8-4 lead after a Cece Hacker triple with 5:55 left in the opening quarter, the Wildcats soon grabbed control, scoring the next eight points to go ahead 12-8 after a Hill layup three minutes later.

Northern led 19-13 after one quarter, getting its first double-digit lead when Hill made another layup to make it 29-18 with 6:39 left in the first half.

It had increased to 39-23 by halftime, then grew quickly with a 14-2 run to start the second half. That’s when the Wildcats led 53-25 following a pair of free throws by Whitehouse with 2:58 left in the third.

They took a 55-29 advantage into the final period, getting the lead up to as many as 30 points three times in the fourth, the final time at 65-35 after a Madison Schroeder layup with 3:09 remaining.

The Lakers put a bit of a burst together in the final few minutes to almost knock the final margin below 20 points.

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.