HOUGHTON — A last minute shot by Northwood’s Ellie Taylor in the paint with less than 10 seconds remaining in the game put the Timberwolves over the Michigan Tech Huskies 58-56 on Friday.

It was tough loss as the Huskies (2-1) led for more than 26 minutes.

It was an offensive shootout from the start as the GLIAC rivals battled to a 22-19 first quarter with Northwood (3-0) on top. Taylor led the Timberwolves in the opening 10 minutes with three three-pointers.

“We competed really well. After the first quarter, we were able to slow them down,” said Husky head coach Sam Hoyt.

An Ellie McKay jumper at the 6:12 mark in the second quarter put the Huskies on top until the final seconds of the game. Tech cruised into a 34-31 lead at halftime.

“At half I told the team that we needed better ball movement,” Hoyt said. “I also told them that we needed to do better on our defensive transitions which we did.”

The third quarter looked a lot like the second with the Huskies keeping a three to five point lead. With 1:30 left in the third, the Timberwolves came within one at 41-42, but it didn’t last long as Tech’s Sara Dax drained her one and only three pointer of the night to push the Huskies back to a 45-41 lead.

According to Hoyt, their lead could have easily been more, but they could not keep the Timberwolves off the offensive boards.

“They had 14 offensive rebounds, she said. “We defended them well but they had too many second opportunities. We will need to shore that up.”

With less than four minutes to go in the game, Northwood tied the game at 53 on a Makenzie Todd jumper. They then a brief lead at 56-55 but Tech’s Katelyn Meister tied it again at 56 with less than a minute to play. After Taylor’s basket with less then 10 seconds to go, Hoyt called time out and devised an inbound play with a little more than six seconds on the clock. From half court the ball was inbound to senior Ballie McGirk who had an fairly unobstructed drive to the hoop but the ball did not hit right off the glass and the clock ran out.

These two teams will tip off again at 3:30 p.m. today in the SDC Wood Gym.