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Echols helps Wildcats fend off tenacious Huskies squad

Ryan Stieg/Mining Journal (Marquette) Northern Michigan University's Naba Echols drives to the basket past Michigan Tech's Owen White, right, during the fourth quarter at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Saturday.

MARQUETTE — Big-time players come through when the game is on the line and that’s what Northern Michigan University’s Naba Echols with time running low on Saturday.

With Michigan Tech attempting a rally in the final three minutes, Echols dropped in two free throws and put in a driving layup to get the Wildcats back up by double digits.

The Huskies eventually whittled their deficit down to four after a layup by Negaunee alum Trent Bell with 40 seconds left, but Echols drew a foul with 17 seconds to go and calmly sank two free throws to help put the game away as the Wildcats won 63-59.

Echols led all scorers with 23 points, while Sam Taylor had 13. Bell was Tech’s offensive leader with 22.

When asked about his clutch point guard, NMU head coach Bill Sall said Echols just did what he’s supposed to do when things get tough.

“He (Echols) was taking control of the game like he needs to,” he said. “It’s one of those things. He’s our best player for a reason.

“He’s battled a couple injuries, so he didn’t really practice this week except for Friday. He’s just mentally tough and he came out and carried us on his back. It was one of those days where Isaiah (Johnson) had a bad day and couldn’t find the basket, but we had the other guys step up.

“Troy (Summers) was big for us and I thought Sam played incredibly well and hit some big shots. We got contributions from everybody that was in the game.”

“I tried to do it (lead the team), not just with scoring, but with talking,” Echols said about his performance. “Getting key rebounds and playing defense. All the other guys like Isaiah, he’s usually lights out, but I saw that he was kind of struggling today, so I took it upon myself to kind of get everybody else ready to go.”

Tech opened the game hot with Bell knocking down three 3-pointers in the first three minutes. The Huskies’ Upper Peninsula connection of Bell, Dawson Bilski and Jake Witt all hit buckets to help push Tech’s lead up to 22-10.

However, with about 10 minutes left in the half, Northern started to chip away at the Huskies’ advantage. Alec Fruin and Taylor knocked down back-to-back triples, while two straight layups from Summers brought the Wildcats within one of the Huskies at 24-23 with about eight minutes remaining.

Northern took the lead on a putback by Taylor with just over seven minutes left, and in the final two minutes, Taylor and Echols both hit treys to put the Wildcats on top 37-30 at the half.

“We didn’t come out with the energy I was hoping to see and it really got to about that 15-minute mark where we still weren’t quite there,” Sall said. “Then we kind of got it and then we really came at them for about 10 minutes and really flipped the defensive intensity.”

MTU started off the second half hot, pulling within two points twice, the second time on a jumper by Bilski with 17:42 left. However, NMU wasn’t shaken as its veterans started to take control.

Five points from Johnson and two layups by Echols gave the Wildcats a double-digit lead at 48-37 with 11:15 left. From that point until about three minutes left, any time Tech put in a basket, Northern had an answer.

Then the Huskies rallied. Two free throws by Bryan Heath cut Tech’s deficit to seven with three minutes left, and a layup by Isaac Appleby and a triple by Owen White dropped NMU’s lead to six at 60-54 with 1:25 remaining. However, the Huskies comeback came up short in the end.

“Our offense got a little stagnant,” Sall said. “We got to look at the film a little bit, but I think we got a little lackluster and that could be on me a little bit. We went to maybe a little too much ‘iso’ and then they came back like we knew they were going to do.

“That’s the thing about a rival game. No lead is ever safe. I like the fact that after a couple of possessions where I didn’t think we had the right defensive intensity, we picked it up. We cleaned up on the glass and Myles (Howard) was incredible on the defensive glass and got just about everything that was there, and Troy did a great job there, too. They got six and 10 so 16 defensive rebounds from two guys is pretty impressive.

“I thought in today’s game, our effort was good, but I wish we would’ve done a better job of executing offensively.”

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