MARQUETTE, Mich. – After a weekend split, the No. 17 Northern Michigan men's basketball team is back on the road with just three weekends remaining in the regular season.
The Wildcats will travel to the Motor City to take on Wayne State on Thursday, Feb. 12, at 7:30 p.m. Northern will then travel further south to Purdue Northwest to contest the Pride on Saturday, Feb. 14, at 4 p.m. ET.
Coming off a 71-68 defeat against the Lake Superior State Lakers, the 'Cats are 20-4 overall and 11-3 in conference play, deadlocked with Michigan Tech and Grand Valley State at the top of the GLIAC leaderboard.
Each game this weekend will be streamed on FloCollege and can also be heard live on 100.3 The Point, with Casey Ford on the call.
Follow the Action
Follow @NMU_MensBBALL and @NMU_Wildcats on X (formerly known as Twitter) and @nmu_mbb on Instagram for updates throughout the weekend.
About the Wildcats
The Wildcats dropped one spot to No. 16 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Poll, behind No. 13 Michigan Tech and ahead of No. 19 Grand Valley State. The Wildcats are tied for first place in the conference standings with GVSU and MTU at 11-3.
Dylan Kuehl leads the way for the Green and Gold. In GLIAC games, he is first in scoring (22.1 ppg) and field goal percentage (56.9%), and second in blocks (1.7 bpg). He has scored in double figures in every game against DII competition this season, and recently posted 32 and 26 points in the games last weekend.
The Wildcats have established themselves as one of the most efficient teams in the nation, leading the country with a +11.6 rebounding margin. They are also top 10 in assist/turnover ratio (2nd, 1.71), scoring margin (5th, 19.2), and three-point percentage (9th, 39.5).
A large part of the success beyond the arc is
Cal Klesmit, who is second in GLIAC play with 3.4 threes per game and first in shooting 49.5% from beyond the arc. Through 14 conference games, he is 10th at 14.5 points per game. He can take over a game from three, notching five or more triples eight times this season.
Bennett Basich has also been an all-around force in league competition, averaging 11.8 points and 6.8 rebounds. He has scored in double figures in 10 of the past 12 games and notched a 13-point, 14-rebound double-double on Jan. 17 vs. Saginaw Valley State.
Jackson Dudek is also averaging double figures at 12.5 points per game. His 44.4% career three-point percentage is fifth among all active players with at least 80 attempts.
A Look at Wayne State
The Warriors are 11-9 overall and 8-6 in GLIAC play. Winners of three straight, WSU is 8-3 at home and most recently knocked off Grand Valley State 70-68. Jordan Briggs leads the team at 17.8 points per game, with Carlos Paul III (12.6) and Jotham Nweke (10.6) also in double figures.
The Wildcats defeated the Warriors 83-62 on Jan. 24. Briggs had 16 to pace WSU, while Northern had three in double figures, led by 21 from Dudek.
A Look at Purdue Northwest
The Pride are 10-11 overall and 6-8 in league play. At 5-4 at home, they fell to GVSU last weekend but bounced back with a 62-56 win over Davenport. Kyle Ross leads the team, averaging 14.8 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
On Jan. 22, NMU trailed the Pride 41-37 at halftime, but rallied to win 82-75. Northern was led by Kuehl with 28 points while Ross had a 23-point, 10-rebound double-double for the Pride.
