The nationally No. 20 Ferris State men’s basketball team returned home this past weekend and split their contests against GLIAC rivals Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech.
After the games this weekend the Bulldogs (17-5, 7-4 in conference) remain three games back from first in the GLIAC standings. With seven games remaining in the regular season and all of those games being conference games, the team will look to finish strong and create momentum going into the GLIAC tournament.
In the first game of the home series, the Bulldogs took on the No. 1 seed in the GLIAC standings Northern Michigan, which they would end up falling short of winning in an 83-80 loss that came down to the final seconds.
Head coach Andy Bronkema thought the team struggled to make the plays they needed to make throughout the game.
“The story of this game was, there were just plays to be made that we didn’t make,” Bronkema said. “I mean layups or our hands were on the basketball or wide-open shots, we were 1-10 from three in the second half. If you want to win a big game you got to go 5-10, 4-10 and we weren’t able to do it and you know let’s do it the next time.”
In the first half, Ferris had a rough time at the free throw line ,shooting 5-for-9 (55.6%) that left points off the board. The team shot 44.4% from field goal range and 40% from three-point range. At the half, the Bulldogs trailed by 10 points.
In the second half, the team shot better from field goal range at 56.3% and from the free throw line at 83.3%. But the team struggled from three-point range as they shot only 10% going 1-for-10. The team missed six free throws that would come back to haunt them as they fell short of the comeback by just three points.
Following the close loss to Northern Michigan, Ferris responded with a 79-63 win against Michigan Tech to finish the home series.
Senior guard Ben Davidson described the loss to the Wildcats while remembering the type of play that Michigan Tech brings to the match.
“Thursday was such a big game number one. Number two, we lost and it was a heartbreaking loss,” Davidson said. “We fought hard; we didn’t make enough big plays at the end of the day. We just had to come out and prove ourselves today. The last time we played Tech, it took us a buzzer-beater to win that game. We knew that it was going to be a dogfight tonight and it was, they play hard. They play scrappy and we ended up getting a win, which is awesome.”
In the win against Michigan Tech, the Bulldogs played much better defensively, holding their opponent to 40% shooting from field goal range and 25.9% from the three-point line. The team also shared the ball collecting 25 assists to their opponents 16 assists, and outrebounded their opponent 36 to 27.
Offensively, Ferris struggled from three-point range shooting 15.4% on 2-for-13. But the team shot 59.3% from field goal range and scored 52 points in the paint. The team also had a big contribution from the bench as the bench scored 30 points.
The Bulldogs’ wealth of scoring was recognized by Bronkema in their win over the Huskies.
“A lot of people contributed today, which is nice,” Bronkema said. “You never know when your number is getting called. We say that and tonight some guys stepped up and made plays.
Eleven players scored for Ferris, including Davidson, who led the team with 20 points. Senior forward Desean Munson and senior forward Dolapo Olayinka followed Davidson, both having 13 points.
The Bulldogs will now hit the road for a one-game week as they prepare to take on the No. 3 seed Lake Superior State Lakers in another big game. Gametime is set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 10.