DEKALB, Ill. -- Sophomore Eugene German scored a career-high 31 points and junior Levi Bradley added 21 as the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team topped Western Michigan, 75-67, on Saturday afternoon at the NIU Convocation Center.
After trailing by four at the half, NIU (12-15, 5-9 MAC) shot 61.5 percent (16-of-26) in the second half, while holding Western Michigan to just under 40 percent shooting (11-of-28), to claim the victory.
“I think we out-toughed them in the second half,” said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. “We were very efficient offensively, shooting 61 percent (in the second half), 80 percent at the line, 40 percent shooting threes. It was one of those games where there wasn’t going to be a lot of separation, you have two teams that really want to lock-in defensively.
“(Eugene) German and (Levi) Bradley carried us offensively and we rode that wave in the second half, that was enough to get us the win, but it started on the defensive end.”
Neither team led by more than four in an evenly played first half. With the game tied at 22, Bradley converted an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Huskies a 25-22 advantage with just under four minutes remaining before the break.
Western Michigan (15-12, 7-7 MAC) closed the half on a 9-2 run as the Broncos took a 31-27 lead into halftime. German led NIU with 10 points in the opening 20 minutes; Thomas Wilder had 11 points to pace the Broncos.
A triple by Bradley early in the second half capped a 7-1 run for the Huskies out of halftime and pushed NIU in front by a pair, 34-32, but Western Michigan responded with the next seven as the Broncos took a 39-34 advantage with 13:21 left.
The Broncos were still in front by five when NIU used a 10-0 run to take a 46-41 lead with 10:21 to play. German opened the burst with a trifecta, junior Lacey James added a layup before German scored the next five to give the Huskies the five-point advantage.
James finished with eight points and five rebounds.
Western Michigan came right back and took a one-point lead, 49-48, until a 6-1 Huskie burst moved NIU back in front, 54-50, with 6:35 remaining.
After a pair of free throws by the Broncos cut the NIU lead in half, the Huskies used a 9-0 run to take an 11-point lead, their largest of the night, 63-52. German opened the run with a layup, Bradley added a triple from the wing, sophomore Justin Thomas (Indianapolis, Ind./Pike) made a basket and Bradley converted a pair from the line as the Huskies pushed their lead to double-digits with 3:37 to play.
Bradley went 9-of-9 from the free-throw line and has now made 17-straight free throws dating back to Feb. 3.
Western Michigan made one final push as the Broncos scored 13 of the next 18 to pull within three. Bryce Moore capped the run with a trifecta with 48 ticks remaining as WMU cut the NIU lead to 68-65
NIU broke Western Michigan’s full-court pressure, finished with a dunk by James, and then made 5-of-6 free throws in the final 33 seconds to close out the victory as the Huskies improved to 10-1 this season when holding opponents under 70 points.
Wilder finished with 20 points to lead Western Michigan, Moore added 15 for the Broncos.
NIU heads back on the road this week as the Huskies travel to Ball State (Tuesday, Feb. 20) and Eastern Michigan (Saturday, Feb. 24) before returning home to host Toledo on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m.
DEKLAB, Ill. – A late second quarter surge by Ball State proved to be too much to overcome as the Northern Illinois University women’s basketball team fell to the Cardinals, 72-50, in the Convocation Center Saturday afternoon.
“I didn’t think that we did a very good job, especially on the offensive end, of taking care of the basketball,” said NIU head coach Lisa Carlsen. “That had really been what had gotten us to winning some ballgames, is having opportunities to score. When you turn it over as much as we did, especially in spurts, good things aren’t bound to happen.
“You have to credit Ball State for a lot of that. They’re a great basketball team. I thought they did a nice job of disrupting things for us on the offensive end. We didn’t handle it very well, allowed them to get some easy run outs and that put us in the situation we were in.”
NIU (13-12, 5-9 MAC) had its worst shooting performance of the season as the Huskies shot 28.6 percent from the field, hitting 18-of-63. It was the lowest shooting percentage for NIU since March 9, 2015 when the Huskies shot 28.3 percent in a 49-44 los to Central Michigan. Ball State (21-4, 10-4 MAC) shot 38.7 percent from the field, including 42.9 from three-point territory.
Four Cardinals finished in double figures, with Jasmin Samz leading the way with a game-high 18 points, going 7-of-10 from the field, including 4-for-4 from three-point land.
Two Huskies finished in double digits with Courtney Woods led the way. The NIU junior finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, while Kelly Smith, who returned to action after missing last week’s game, also finished in double digits with 11 points.
With NIU trailing, 23-16, with 6:24 left in the first half, the Huskies went on a 6-0 run to close the gap to one with 2:43 left in the half. Unfortunately, that would be as close as NIU would get. Ball State responded with an 11-0 run in the final two minutes of the first half to take a 34-22 lead into the break.
Another Ball State run in the third quarter put the game out of reach for the Huskies. NIU pulled to within five points in the first half of the third quarter, 40-35, but the Cardinals closed out the third quarter with an 18-0 run to take a 58-35 advantage into the fourth.
NIU returns to the floor Wednesday, Feb. 21, when the Huskies travel to Central Michigan. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
