CHICAGO – Roosevelt struggled to contain Northern Michigan in the second half as the Wildcats ran away with an 85-64 win over the Lakers on Saturday in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at the Goodman Center.
The Lakers (0-6, 0-2 GLIAC) were down 10 at halftime, but managed to grind their way back into the game in the first part of the second half. Davon Smith-Johnson converted a 3-point play then Kaleim Taylor added a stepback jumper off an offensive rebound to cut the deficit to five. Roosevelt hung around from there and eventually whittled the lead to 54-50 after a Mikey West jumper.
However, the Wildcats asserted control after that point with an outrageous 25-4 run that included 15 straight points. Northern Michigan made nine second-half 3-pointers to finish with 16 in the game and outpace a strong offensive effort from the Lakers. Roosevelt shot 47 percent from the field in the game, including 10 of 24 from behind the arc, yet it was not enough.
The Lakers got off to another strong start in the game with a defensive stop followed by a Taylor 3-pointer from the wing. Smith-Johnson added a triple of his own and West joined the 3-point party as well to put Roosevelt up five points a little more than three minutes into the game. Roosevelt made 5 of 11 from behind the arc in the first half as the Lakers made 50 percent of their shots overall.
Northern Michigan began to assert a little control over the game late in the first half with a 13-0 run that blew the game open to 41-27 with 90 seconds left. West added a pair of jump shots to get the margin down to 10 at the intermission.
West finished with 18 total points to lead the Lakers while Taylor added 16 and Griffin Yaklich chipped in 11. Yaklich led the Lakers with six rebounds and also dished out three assists in a gritty effort against Northern Michigan's size on the interior.
UP NEXT: The Lakers will be off next week for finals before returning to the court on Dec. 16 against McKendree in a neutral site contest at Quincy. It begins a busy stretch of three games in five days to close out the non-conference portion of the schedule.
