MIDLAND - A Northwood men's basketball team playing for its proverbial life upended 17th-ranked Lake Superior State 73-66 in overtime Thursday. The Timberwolves lived to play the Lakers another day.
Northwood (15-13 overall, 11-11 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) needed to beat LSSU (23-5 overall, 18-4 GLIAC) in order to earn the last spot in next week's GLIAC Tournament. The Timberwolves tied Hillsdale for eighth-place in the league standings, but won the tie-breaker by beating the Chargers twice during the regular season.
LSSU and NU are 1-1 against each other this season.
LSSU clinched the top tournament seed with last Saturday's victory over Michigan Tech. The Lakers will host Northwood at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, during the quarterfinal round of the GLIAC Tournament. If the Lakers prevail Wednesday, they will also host the semifinal and final rounds March 7 and 8.
In other quarterfinal games, it will be No. 7 Walsh at No. 2 Michigan Tech, No. 6 Ashland at No. 3 Ferris State, and No. 5 Findlay at No. 4 Saginaw Valley State.
Thursday's regular-season finale at Northwood was close from start to finish, but LSSU saw its shooting percentage plummet as the game continued. The Lakers led 36-35 at halftime after shooting 58.3 percent from the field. They subsequently shot 29.6 percent during the second half and 11.1 percent in overtime, making only nine field goals during the final 25 minutes.
LSSU out-scored NU 9-3 during the final five minutes of regulation to tie the game, 64-64. Junior Devin Daly, who led the Lakers with a career-high 22 points and 10 rebounds, made the first basket of overtime, but his team failed to score the rest of the way. A jumper and two free throws by Maurice Jones secured the win for Northwood.
Freshman Mike Nicholson followed Daly with 10 points, and junior Jake Blake totaled eight points and a team-high 11 rebounds.
LSSU was 5-of-18 from three-point range and 15-of-19 at the free-throw line.
Will Bowles led Northwood with 23 points and eight rebounds, and Jones followed with 13 points, five rebounds and six assists. Northwood shot 42.6 percent from the field, including 4-of-15 from three-point range, and made 17-of-24 free throws. The Timberwolves out-rebounded LSSU, 40-38.