MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan University men's basketball team closed out the regular season with a 69-56 loss to rival Michigan Tech Thursday at the Berry Events Center.

The Wildcats finished the season with a 5-21 overall record and a 4-18 GLIAC mark. Michigan Tech improved to 20-6 on the season with a 16-6 league record.

"We played pretty hard I give the guys a lot of credit, we didn't play our best tonight and that has to do with what Michigan Tech was doing. A lot of the sets we had we weren't able to get much out of," said head coach Bill Sall. "You look at the course of tonight's game, our guys battled back and went on a significant run and made some tough shots to get a one-point lead. This is where we have to continue to learn because they aren't going to fall over and quit. We have four possessions where we got some stops and they didn't score but we then had bad possessions on the offensive end. Those are the things we are going to have to overcome and figure out for sure."

Sophomore guard Terry Nash led the Wildcats with 13 points followed by junior forward Justin Newell

A layup by Kyle Stankowski with 2:01 left in the first half gave the Huskies a 38-23 advantage but NMU went on a 6-0 run to close the second half capped by a pair of layups from junior forward Justin Newell.

Northern Michigan trailed 38-29 at the break. Newell led NMU with seven first-half points while Austin Armga led all scorers with 15 for the Huskies.

The Wildcats shot 12-18 in the first half (42.9%) and went 4-5 from the free throw line (80%). Michigan Tech went 14-26 from the floor (53.8%) and 6-9 from the free throw line (66.7%).

The Huskies outrebounded the Wildcats 17-13 in the first half and outscored the Wildcats 16-10 in the paint.

NMU opened the second half with a 14-3 run to take a 43-41 lead on a three-pointer from Newell with 13:31 left in the game.

Junior guard Ethan Blackwell scored five-straight points to being the run, while Newell also scored five points during that stretch.

Michigan Tech tied the game on a jumper by Ben Stelzer with 12:33 left and retook the lead on a three from Alex Cully just a minute later, 48-45.

The Huskies were able to stretch the lead back out to double-figures with 6:28 left in the game on a three from Stelzer.

The Wildcats shot 42.1-percent from the floor (24-57) while the Huskies shot 45.8-percent from the field (22-48). Tech outrebounded NMU 37-27 but the battle for scoring in the paint was tied at 24-24.

NMU capitalized on 10-Michigan Tech turnovers to score 14 points off those miscues while holding the Huskies to just seven points off turnovers.

Austin Armga led all players with 23 points for the Huskies, followed by Alex Cully and Stelzer with 12 points each.

Prior to the game NMU honored senior Michael Smith in the squads annual Senior Night celebration.