For this week’s games, the Ferris State men’s basketball team traveled to the Upper Peninsula where they defeated the Michigan Tech Huskies on Thursday, Jan. 11 before losing to the Northern Michigan Wildcats on Saturday, Jan. 13.
The Bulldogs’ (13-3, 3-2 in GLIAC) 69-68 victory over the Huskies (5-10, 2-4 in GLIAC) saw a game-winning shot from junior guard Ethan Erickson with six seconds left to play.
After the win on Thursday, head coach Andy Bronkema gave his thoughts on his team’s resilience and Erickson’s game-winning basket.
“We defended pretty well, so we were able to hang in there and the boys showed a lot of poise down the stretch,” Bronkema said. “Jack [Ammerman] hit a game-winner earlier this year, so we wanted it to be in his hands. We set a good hook screen for Ethan, he got open and he drained it.”
In the first half, four Bulldogs all had two or more fouls which forced Bronkema to go to his bench. Despite this, Ferris got out to a 10-point lead with nine minutes remaining in the half. The Huskies came storming back to tie, going into halftime due to aggressiveness on the offensive boards. The Bulldogs got out-rebounded by seven and gave up eight offensive rebounds in the half.
In the second half, the Huskies were more aggressive and continued their domination of the boards. Michigan Tech built an eight-point lead with less than five minutes in the half. Ferris battled back thanks to a bench that outscored the Huskies bench by 33. With the game coming down to the final possession, the Bulldogs had the ball out of bounds and fed Erickson who hit the corner three to take the lead. The Huskies were forced to take a full-court shot as time expired giving Ferris a 69-68 win and extending their winning streak to seven games.
Two days after their first Upper Peninsula win, the Bulldogs traveled to Marquette to play a red-hot Northern Michigan Wildcats (13-5, 6-0 in GLIAC) team that had won eight straight games. Ultimately, the Bulldogs fell to the Wildcats 75-71.
Heading into the Northern Michigan game, Bronkema felt his team was ready for a battle despite the Wildcats’ strong start to the season.
“Northern Michigan is undefeated in conference play and returning a lot of guys from the national tournament team,” Bronkema said. “We didn’t fare so well last year, but this is a brand-new team and hopefully we will give them a great game.”
To start the game, Ferris came out on top in the first half with a two-point lead thanks to a 16-point performance by Erickson. Once again, Ferris was out-rebounded, which helped the Wildcats take 13 more free throws than Ferris. Despite the rebound and free throw difference, the Bulldogs and the Wildcats were neck and neck. In the final possessions, Northern Michigan hit a couple of free throws and a three that ended up giving them a 75-71 victory over the Bulldogs.
Even after this road trip, Erickson continued his scoring run. In the past seven games, he is averaging 18 points a game while playing less than 25 minutes all the games. In all but one of the games, he scored less than 15 points and scored his season-high 36 against Kuyper.
The Bulldogs will head back home to face off against Davenport on Thursday, Jan. 18, and play their in-state rivals Grand Valley State University on Saturday, Jan. 20.