Great Lakes Wire

In a matchup of top-25 women's basketball teams, Northern Michigan University (NMU) faced a challenging game against Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio. The Wildcats were defeated 84-62 by the Eagles, marking their second loss of the season.

Throughout the game, NMU struggled to gain momentum and never took the lead. The Eagles capitalized on their strong shooting performance, achieving a 54.7% success rate from the field compared to NMU's 42.6%. Mackenzie Holzwart led NMU with a season-high 14 points off the bench, while Alyssa Nimz contributed 12 points.

Ashland dominated in scoring within the paint, outscoring NMU 52-30 in this area. Hayley Smith played a pivotal role for Ashland with an impressive stat line of 20 points, 12 rebounds, five steals, and four assists. Three other players from Ashland also scored in double figures.

The game began with Nimz scoring first for NMU but was quickly followed by a 7-0 run from Ashland, resulting in an early lead for the home team at 18-11 after the first quarter. Despite efforts from Newcomer and Romero to keep NMU competitive with successful three-point shots, they trailed at halftime by a score of 39-26.

In the third quarter, Ashland extended their lead significantly with another dominant run and maintained control throughout most of the second half. However, NMU managed to outscore Ashland slightly in the fourth quarter with an effort led by Holzwart and freshman Ava Bates who scored her first collegiate points.

With this result, Northern Michigan's record stands at 8-2 while Ashland improved to an 11-3 standing.

Looking ahead into early January of next year, Northern Michigan will continue their season with important conference games against Davenport on January 2nd and Grand Valley State on January 4th.