Northern Michigan University’s Peter Lattos, top, gets fouled while going for a layup during a GLIAC men’s basketball game played against Wisconsin-Parkside at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Dec. 7. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — Home court in the upcoming GLIAC Tournament was an endangered species for the Northern Michigan University men’s basketball team for awhile on Saturday afternoon.

The Wildcats trailed for much of the time in a game they needed to win to insure home court in the first-round quarterfinals of the conference tournament.

After NMU fell behind by 17 points in the first half and still found themselves in a deficit of as many as 14 points in the second half, the Wildcats stormed back to take a 76-75 win at Purdue Northwest to finish in fourth place in the GLIAC.

Four teams get home court in the opening round, and a loss would’ve left Northern in a tie with Grand Valley State and a tiebreaker needed to decide the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds. Entering the day, three teams had a chance to pull even if NMU had lost, but the other two — Wayne State and Wisconsin-Parkside — both lost themselves on Saturday.

It ends up that No. 5 GVSU will come to Marquette on Wednesday evening to face the No. 4 Wildcats at Vandament Arena at 7:30 p.m., the second half of a doubleheader with the Northern women’s team, which also hosts a league quarterfinal after getting its No. 2 seed.

For the Wildcat men on Saturday, Dylan Kuehl led their scoring effort with 18 points, including a 3-pointer, and also their rebounders with eight.

Sam Privet added 11 points with a 3, while Julien Smith tallied 10 points as he hit a pair of 3s and didn’t commit a turnover in 21 minutes court time.

Quinton McCullough paced Purdue NW coming off the bench to lead all scorers with 22 points and all rebounders with 16 in just 24 minutes playing time, though he did have six turnovers.

NMU won the turnover battle, 13-8, even while losing the rebounding war, 35-26, as the teams were fairly even with their shooting.

The teams traded the lead several times in the early going, but when Kuehl hit a 3 with 16:27 left in the first half, it gave the Wildcats a 7-6 lead that would be their last until the game’s final few minutes.

The Pride, who finished 10th in the GLIAC and missed the conference tourney by three games at 3-17 in league contests, went on an 8-0 run to take control with a 14-7 lead.

Their advantage eventually ballooned to 17 points twice, the final time 38-21 after McCullough hit a pair of free throws 4:30 before halftime.

Northern whittled its deficit back to single digits before the break, including 42-35 at intermission.

Purdue NW again found the range a few minutes into the second half, building the lead back to 65-51 at the midpoint of the half.

The Wildcats immediately went on a 10-3 run over the next five minutes to get it back to a more manageable 68-61 deficit with 5:50 left. That spurt wrapped up with a pair of layups by both Kuehl and Jackson Dudek.

But NMU didn’t cut PNW’s lead to a single possession until the final 90 seconds, when Derek Merwick hit a pair of free throws with exactly 1:30 left to make it 75-73.

He then made a steal of the Pride’s ensuing possession and was fouled again, also again sinking a pair of free throws to draw the Wildcats even 75-75 with 1:05 to go.

Finally, after Purdue NW missed a 3-point try and Kuehl made the rebound, Merwick was sent to the free-throw line one final time with 27 seconds left. He made 1 of 2 for a 5-of-6 performance in a span of 63 seconds to give Northern the final point it needed to win.

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.