Making a Run for It: Junior Darien Gay (#11) flies past Northern Michigan oppo­nents dur­ing a recent game. Gay scored 10 points dur­ing Saturday’s game against Northern, con­tribut­ing to a 90–76 vic­tory. Photo By: Kristyn Sonnenberg | Photo Editor

For the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive week, the Bulldogs squan­dered a lead in a Thursday night game, only to respond with feroc­ity on Saturday.

On Feb. 11 against Michigan Tech, Ferris was in com­plete con­trol as it held a 17-point lead with 15:23 to play. Junior forward/center Justin Keenan made a layup to put Ferris up by 11 with 5:50 to go, but fouled out of the game with 4:24 remaining.

From that point on it was all down­hill for the Bulldogs as they were not able to find the bot­tom of the net for the remain­der of the con­test. Michigan Tech stormed back to claim a 70–67 come-from-behind vic­tory. Senior guard Austin Randel had 14 points and four assists for the Bulldogs in the los­ing effort.

“After Justin Keenan fouled out, we were des­per­ate for a leader on the floor and I had to apol­o­gize (to the team) because I felt as if I should have been that guy,” said Randel.

The Huskies held a deci­sive 45–28 advan­tage on the boards, includ­ing 21 offen­sive rebounds. Michigan Tech did not let extra oppor­tu­ni­ties go to waste as they outscored the Bulldogs 21–4 in second-chance points. Head Coach Bill Sall thought the game was tough to swal­low as his team did some unchar­ac­ter­is­tic things late in the game.

“We had some bad turnovers and bad deci­sions and then the crowd got into it and the momen­tum switched,” said Sall.

On Saturday, the Bulldogs jumped out to another quick start, but this time they did not let up. Northern Michigan was rid­ing a two-game win­ning streak, but the Bulldogs kept up their defen­sive pres­sure through­out as they defeated the Wildcats 90–76.

“We all knew that we had to come out and put the past behind us and worry about the task ahead,” said Randel.

Randel had 21 points to go along with three steals and Keenan tal­lied 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Bulldogs. Ferris con­stantly pres­sured the Wildcats into mis­takes as it forced 16 turnovers in the first half, which led to a 42–27 half­time lead.

“Our defense was much more aggres­sive and we got a lot of turnovers, which led to points,” said Sall.

The Bulldogs led by as many as 24 points in the sec­ond half as they did not let up in the slightest.

Ferris has won eight of its last 10 games and its record stands at 14–9 over­all, 12–6 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). The Bulldogs are in sec­ond place in the GLIAC North Division, only one game behind Grand Valley State.

There are only four games remain­ing in the reg­u­lar sea­son as Ferris wraps up its four-game road trip. The team trav­els to Saginaw Valley State on Feb. 18 and then to Lake Superior State on Feb. 20.

Saginaw Valley is cur­rently only one game behind Ferris in the stand­ings and will be one of teams the Bulldogs bat­tle for play­off posi­tion as they are com­ing down the stretch.

“This is a huge game with only four games left and bat­tling for a play­off spot,” said Sall.