Dylan Kuehl

MARQUETTE — The nets were cut down on Saturday afternoon for the fourth straight season by the men’s basketball team at Northern Michigan University.

That’s because the Wildcats again clinched a title in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, this year being the regular-season title, with a 98-75 victory over Wisconsin-Parkside on Saturday afternoon at Vandament Arena.

NMU clinched either the regular-season crown or the GLIAC Tournament championship in 2026, 2025, 2024 and 2023.

But there’s no reason the Northern men can’t make it TWO this season, adding a conference tourney title if they can win another three games in a row over the next week.

As long as NMU keeps winning, it keeps playing at home as the No. 1 seed in the tourney. The Northern men join the Wildcat women playing at home on Wednesday in their respective GLIAC tourney first-round quarterfinals, the No. 4 women’s game vs. No. 5 Michigan Tech tipping off at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time.

The men’s game follows, No. 8 Ferris State vs. No. 1 NMU, though a separate ticket will be required to attend that game scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

While the NMU women will in all likelihood go on the road for the semifinals and finals if they win Wednesday, the Northern men are guaranteed to stay at home for their semis and finals as the No. 1 seed — as long as they win the quarterfinal opener.

Grand Valley State won the women’s regular season with a 19-1 record.

Northern’s men’s title came about with a wire-to-wire victory over Parkside on Saturday and also winning a tiebreaker with MTU — while they split their season series, NMU won the next tiebreaker with a better record vs. the top team in the standings not involved in the tie, Grand Valley State. Though the Wildcats only split with GVSU, the Lakers swept Tech.

The Upper Peninsula rivals finished with identical 25-5 overall and 16-4 GLIAC records, while Grand Valley was nipping at their heels at 22-6 and 15-5.

On Saturday, the big story was yet another career scoring night by graduate student forward Dylan Kuehl, as he reached 40 points for the first time and the 17th time by a Northern men’s player.

He knocked down 41 points on 15-of-20 overall shooting from the field, including 4 of 7 on 3-pointers. He also was a perfect 7 of 7 at the free-throw line, adding in a game-high nine rebounds, sharing top assist honors with four and blocking three shots. No other player on either team had even one block.

He did a little of everything, knocking down the multiple 3s while also slamming home five dunks, according to a game report from NMU Sports Information.

Two days earlier, Kuehl, of Iron Ridge, Wis., had set his career high with 36 points in a win over Roosevelt.

Tickets for Wednesday’s game are available online at tickets.nmu.edu, with tickets also available at the Superior Dome Ticket Office or by phone at 227-1032 during weekday business hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

They cost $14 for general public reserved seating, $10 for general public general admission, $2 for college students general admission with a valid ID, and free for children under 5 years old.