Men's Basketball Drops 89-86 Contest To BYU-Hawaii

The Northwood University men's basketball team dropped a tough 89-86 contest at BYU-Hawaii Saturday night (December 22).

The Timberwolves fall to 7-5 overall.  BYU-Hawaii improves to 4-5 overall.

Northwood was the better team for the majority of the opening half. The Timberwolves lead by as many as 14 in the half before a late run by the Seasiders cut the NU advantage to 37-36 at the break.  The first half stats proved to be even – both teams knocked down 12 field goals, made three 3-pointers, had nine assists and eight turnovers.

Both offenses came to life after the break, as the two teams combined to score 102 points after halftime.  The Seasiders used a 13-2 run to go up 57-49 with 12:17 remaining in the game. The lead varied from four to seven points over the next six minutes until BYU-Hawaii opened up their biggest lead of the game at 74-65 with 5:59 remaining.  Trailing by eight a few moments later, the Timberwolves used a 13-5 run to level the score at 81 with 1:26 remaining.

The 1:11 of the game featured big plays by both offenses.  The Seasiders converted a layup while getting fouled, putting them up 84-81.  But the Timberwolves responded immediately, thanks to a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Khalid King (Columbus, Ohio/North Carolina A&T). However, it was BYU-Hawaii who came up with the final big shot of the game, a 3-pointer with 34 seconds remaining the put them on top for good at 87-84.  NU cut the lead to one and had a pair of 3-point attempts in the final 11 seconds to tie the game, but both were no good.

For the game, Northwood shot 43.9 percent overall (25-57) from the floor while going 8-18 from 3-point range (44.4 percent). A game after going 12-22 from the foul line, the Timberwolves went 28-30 (93.3 percent) from the line against BYU-Hawaii.  The Seasiders used a hot second half from the floor (61.5 percent) to finish at 50.0 percent overall (28-56).

Four Timberwolves finished in double figures, led by Wes Wilcox (Roselle, Ill./Harper).  He had a game-high 22 points, finishing the night 13-14 from the foul line.  Darvin Ham (Saginaw, Mich./Bridgeport) had 21 points, six rebounds and six assists. Dylan Langkabel (Morristown, Ind.) and Casey Boyle (Grayslake, Ill./Central) added 14 and 10 points, respectively.

Northwood returns to GLIAC play January 2 with a home game against Ashland.  Game time is set for 8 p.m.