MARQUETTE - Lake Superior State relied on impressive first-half shooting and stellar second-half defense to beat the Northern Michigan men's basketball team 58-41 Thursday and even its Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference record at 10-10 with two regular-season games remaining.

LSSU (13-11 overall) shot 56.5 percent (13-of-23) from the field during the first half to build a 35-21 lead. The Lakers held NMU (5-19 overall, 4-16 GLIAC) to five second-half field goals.

Junior Derek Billing was 3-for-3 from behind the arc and led LSSU with 14 points. Senior forward Derek Kinney finished with 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds, and sophomore guard Alex Williams had 10 points.

Kinney made back-to-back baskets at 4:57 and 3:22 of the first half to surpass the 1,000-point career scoring milestone. He is also closing in on 650 career rebounds, which would put him on the LSSU's all-time top-10 list.

Kinney made two free throws at 7:12 of the second half to give the Lakers their biggest lead of the game, 58-36.

LSSU shot 46.7 percent from the field for the game, including 5-of-12 from three-point range, and made 11-of-18 free throws.

Matthew Craggs totaled 12 points and four rebounds to lead Northern Michigan. NMU shot 28.6 percent from the field, including 6-of-20 from behind the arc, and made 7-of-9 free throws. The Wildcats out-rebounded LSSU, 41-38.

With Northwood's loss at Michigan Tech Thursday, the Lakers moved back into fifth-place tie in the GLIAC North Division standings with the Timberwolves.

LSSU plays its final regular-season road game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Michigan Tech.

NMU vs. LSSU Boxscore