Men’s Hoops Defeated by Northern Michigan
WESTVILLE, IND. – The Purdue Northwest men’s basketball team was defeated 86-74 Saturday in a home contest against the Northern Michigan Wildcats inside H.D. Kesling Gymnasium. Dean Tate paced the Pride with 18 points and four assists in the losing effort.
The game started out tight, as the Black and Gold were able to push it to a one-point game with 8:36 remaining on a Frank Nunn three-pointer. Durante Lee had a powerful slam with under a minute to go, but PNW ended up taking a ten-point deficit into the half. Troy Summers was a man on a mission for NMU as he corralled 13 points in the first half.
Tate had a big second half, as he scored 11 points over the final 20 minutes. But Isaiah Johnson, the conference’s leading scorer coming into Saturday’s contest, played right up to his season average, finishing with 20 points and six rebounds. Naba Echols also finished with 20 points for NMU, and the talented guard also finished with four steals. Troy Summers ended up with a double-double, as he scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Three of the Pride’s starters ended up in double figures alongside Tate. Durante Lee finished with 11 points and six rebounds, as the GLIAC leader in field goal percentage went just 3-9 from the field. Junior Tim Gilmore also added 11, and dished out a team-high five assists. Anthony Barnard came up just one rebound shy of a double-double, as the freshman wrapped up the day with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Head Coach Boomer Roberts
“We really battled against a quality opponent without two starters, so I’m proud of our response to adversity. I thought we played confidently, but we had one stretch of a handful of possessions where we didn’t execute what we wanted to get done, and that stopped us from finishing our fun. We need to play 40 minutes of our basketball to win games, and right now we’re a few minutes away from that. Dean played his best game of the season, especially with his leadership, and AB and Tae continue to give us everything they’ve got on both ends. We got good minutes from Tripps, Scho, Chandler and Frank off the bench as well. There is no quit in this team, and I’m really proud of that as their coach.
Up next, PNW travels to Grand Rapids for a date with Grand Valley State Thursday, Feb. 7. The GLIAC matchup is set to tip off at 7 p.m. CT.
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