Late Basket Lifts Northern Michigan Past FSU In Men's Basketball Action

Big Rapids, Mich. – A go-ahead basket in the closing seconds lifted visiting Northern Michigan to a 73-71 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) victory over the Ferris State University men's basketball squad on Saturday (Feb. 7) afternoon inside FSU's Jim Wink Arena.

NMU's Chavis Mattison converted on a lay-in with five seconds to play to give the Wildcats the lead and a potential game-winning three by FSU senior guard Drew Lehman as time expired came up short as Northern Michigan pulled off the victory.

With the loss, the Bulldogs dropped to 18-5 overall and 14-3 in league play while NMU improved to 9-14 overall and 7-10 in the GLIAC.

Northern Michigan, under former FSU head coach Bill Sall, started fast while grabbing an early 11-6 lead heading into the first media timeout of the opening frame. NMU led by as many as 11 points in the first period before the Bulldogs managed to cut the margin to only five at the break.

FSU started the second half quickly, though, as senior guard Dietrich Lever tied the contest up for the Bulldogs when he connected on back-to-back triples in the opening minute of the second frame, including one in which he was fouled and coverted a four-point lead.

Following the seven quick points from Lever, the Bulldogs wasted little time in the final half in grabbing their first lead of the game on a Josh Fleming layup and a James Chappell slam. The two buckets gave the Bulldogs a 46-42 lead with 17 minutes to play in the contest.

Ferris State pushed its advantage to as many as six points with just over 11 minutes left in the contest, but NMU did not go away.

FSU's Chappell and NMU's Marcus Hall traded buckets to keep the Bulldogs in front by two with 8:30 to play in the game. The Bulldogs then added a free throw from junior center Jared Stolicker to push the lead to 61-58 with 8:19 left in regulation.

However, Northern Michigan answered and the Bulldogs eventually fell behind 69-68 before Lehman scored a basket and was fouled. He connected to complete the three-point play and gave the Bulldogs a 71-69 lead with 1:43 to play. But, NMU's Alex Sorenson answered with a jumper with the shot clock winding down to knot things back up with slightly more than a minute to play.

The Wildcats ran the shot clock down and took a 73-71 lead on Mattison' layup with five seconds to go. The Bulldogs pushed the ball ahead quickly, but couldn't capitalize on the other end as Lehman's three-point attempt was unsuccessful as time expired.

The Bulldogs finished the afternoon shooting 43.4% from the field and connected on 8-of-18 (44.4%) triples. FSU made 17-of-26 (65.4%) from the free throw line.

However, NMU shot a staggering 59.2% from the floor and capitalized from the three-point line by hitting 7-of-12 (58.3%) attempts. The Wildcats finished the afternoon shooting 8-of-13 (61.5%) from the charity stripe.

Ferris State was led by Stolicker, who finished with a game-high 21 points, four boards and three blocks. Lehman joined him in double figures with 10 points. Josh Fleming added nine points, six rebounds and three assists.

NMU was paced by three players in double figures with both Mattison and Hall netting 20 points apiece. Jordan Perez joined them in double-digits with 12 points.

The Wildcats controlled the boards with a 32-27 advantage, although the Bulldogs grabbed 11 offensive boards to just eight Wildcat boards on the offensive glass. It resulted in a 20-9 advantage for the Bulldogs in second chance production.

The Bulldogs had only eight turnovers compared to 14 NMU miscues. Both squads finished with eight points each off of turnovers.

Overall, the Bulldogs tallied 17 assists, nine steals and four blocked shots compared to NMU's 17 assists, four steals and four blocks. Stolicker paced FSU with three blocks while four others had two steals each. Lever had a team-best four assists with both Fleming, Chappell and Cushingberry adding three each. Larry Taylor paced NMU with four assisists.

Ferris State hits the road and will face Northwood on Thursday (Feb. 12) in an 8 pm. (ET) league tilt in Midland. FSU then ventures to Lake Superior State next Saturday (Feb. 14) for a GLIAC contest.