Northern Michigan University’s Brian Parzych, right, drives toward the basket during a GLIAC men’s game played against Wisconsin-Parkside at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Dec. 7. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

KENOSHA, Wis. — The Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team is working its way off the ledge, but it’s still a long ways down if they look over the precipice again.

The Wildcats climbed back into a top-four position in the GLIAC with an 83-70 victory at Wisconsin-Parkside on Thursday night.

Fourth place is critical in the league as four teams qualify for home court in the opening-round quarterfinals of next week’s GLIAC Tournament.

Sitting in fourth place alone at 18-9 overall and 12-7 in the league, NMU leads not one, but three teams by a single game with the everyone’s season finale being played this afternoon.

Northern travels from southern Wisconsin and around the southern end of Lake Michigan to play at 4 p.m. EST today in Hammond, Indiana, at 10th-place Purdue Northwest, an enviable position to be in.

However, if the Wildcats were to lose, they might hold onto their current position or they might fall as far as into seventh place depending on how tiebreakers work out.

The quarterfinals will be held Wednesday, with the highest surviving quarterfinalist hosting the tourney’s semifinals and finals next weekend.

Those 11-8 teams a game behind NMU are Grand Valley State, which hosts ninth-place Roosevelt today; Wayne State, which hosts second-place Lake Superior State today; and Parkside, which hosts league champion Michigan Tech today.

On Thursday, the Wildcats survived a big night by Parkside’s Jack Rose, who scored 33 points that included six 3-pointers.

NMU did it instead with balanced scoring, as five players tallied between 12 and 17 points. Leading the way were Dylan Kuehl and Jackson Dudek with 17 apiece. Kuehl made all three of his 3-point attempts as he pulled down a team-high eight rebounds, while Dudek was also perfect on triples, making both his tries as he added five rebounds and no turnovers in 30 minutes court time.

Gerald Gittens Jr. and Sam Privet added 14 points apiece. While between them they were just 0 of 3 on 3s, each went a perfect 8 of 8 at the free-throw line.

Finally, Brian Parzych came off the bench to score 12 points, knocking down a pair of triples as he also didn’t have a turnover in 21 minutes.

With Kuehl and Dudek leading the way, the Wildcats made 47% on 3s (8 of 17) and 56% overall from the field (28 of 50), much better than the Rangers’ 32% on 3s (10 of 31) and 41% overall shooting (24 of 59).

NMU’s overall shooting was its best of the season and 3-point making the second-best all year.

That was important as most other statistics were quite even — rebounds were 32-32, while Parkside had two fewer fouls (19-17) and one less turnover (7-6).

There was just one lead change all game, but it was the one Northern wanted. The Rangers raced out to an early 8-2 lead after barely more than two minutes had elapsed as Rose hit a jumper and teammates Nick Brown and Josiah Palmer sank 3s.

But the Wildcats quickly corralled their hosts, knocking the deficit down to a single point, 8-7, just 67 seconds later after a Privet layup and Kuehl triple.

NMU then took the lead — for good — with 14:51 remaining in the first half on another Kuehl 3.

Northern needed less than four minutes to work that lead into double digits, 23-12, following a Cal Klesmit layup, then pumped it up to a 16-point advantage, 43-27, at halftime, the last bucket a Dudek layup 55 seconds before the intermission dinner bell.

It didn’t take long for NMU to increase the margin to 20 points in the second half, Dudek knocking down a 3 with 1:05 elapsed to put his team ahead 48-27.

While they matched that 21-point lead several more times, the Wildcats couldn’t get beyond that the rest of the way.

Instead, Parkside whittled its deficit back to nine points, 75-66, with 2:15 left following a Rose layup, his last points of the night.

NMU had one final streaky run left, a 6-0 spurt on a Parzych jumper and Gittens jumper and pair of free throws, to insure their team’s victory.

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.