HILLSDALE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan men's basketball team was led by junior guard Ethan Blackwell's 21 points at Hillsdale but dropped a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference decision to the Chargers 88-64 Monday.

The loss moves the Wildcats to 1-7 overall with a 0-4 GLIAC record. Hillsdale improved to 3-3 with a 1-3 league record with the win. 

"Certainly tonight we ran into a bit of a buzz saw, we played a team that was pretty good even thought they came into the game 0-3 in the league they have five seniors and they dominated us in the second half," said NMU head coach Bill Sall. "They really took us out of our offense and we had a hard time matching up with their size. On a positive note, the past two games we have certainly played with better effort. We have to build on that. We have a good break to take some time and come back ready to go." 

Junior forward Justin Newell added 13 for the Wildcats while junior forward Chavis Mattison added 11. Sophomore guard Terry Nash led Northern Michigan with six rebounds.

Kyle Cooper and Tim Dezelski led Hillsdale scoring 24 points each.  Hillsdale outrebounded NMU 34-28 in the contest. 

The Wildcats shot 38.2% from the floor connecting on 21 of 55 shots. NMU also connected on 15-18 free throws (83.3%).

Northern Michigan was down by 12 late in the first half, but went on a 7-2 run to close the half trailing 39-32 at the break. 

Hillsdale stretched its lead in the second half, outscoring NMU 49-32 in the second frame and shooting 63% (17-27) from the floor in the half. Blackwell had 11 second-half points for the Wildcats including connecting on 3-6 of his shots from the floor while going 2-2 from three-point range and 3-3 from the charity stripe.

Northern Michigan returns to action on January 2 when they host Tiffin at the Berry Events Center. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.