DEKALB, Ill. -- After trailing by 16 at the intermission, the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team rallied to within four in the second half, but couldn’t complete the comeback as the Huskies fell, 73-65, on Saturday night at the NIU Convocation Center. Senior Anthony Johnson scored a career-best 23 points to lead the Huskies.
Despite holding Eastern Michigan to just 33.3 percent (7-of-21) shooting in the second half, while shooting 52.2 percent (12-of-23) after the break, the Huskie rally came up short.
“I think the slow start really hurt us,” said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. “Eastern Michigan was just very efficient on the offensive end, we couldn’t get any stops. We just didn’t seem to start playing defense until the second half.
“Foul trouble hurt us, free throw shooting hurt us and not getting any stops on defense hurt us because we couldn’t get out in transition. It was a combination of a lot of things that hurt us tonight.”
With Eastern Michigan (17-10, 6-8 MAC) leading, 40-24, the Huskies used a 10-2 burst to open the second half to cut the Eagle advantage in half, 42-34, with 14:40 to play. Senior Jordan Threloff netted four points during the burst and junior Travon Baker and Johnson each knocked down a triple as the Huskies pulled within four.
Threloff finished with 10 points and five rebounds.
The Eagles pushed their lead back to 12, 46-34, but the Huskies answered with the next seven on a triple from Johnson and baskets by senior Aaron Armstead and redshirt freshman Marin Maric (Split, Croatia/La Lumiere School) to pull within five, 46-41, with 11:20 to go.
Aaron Armstead and Maric helped the NIU bench outscored the Eastern Michigan reserves, 18-4. Aaron Armstead and junior Chuks Iroegbu each had seven points off the bench.
Trailing by six, 49-43, Baker became the first Huskie to foul out with 10:06 to play. Baker would be one of three Huskies, along with sophomore Michael Orris and sophomore Aaric Armstead (Chicago, Ill./La Jolla Prep) to foul out in the contest. NIU entered the game with just two foul outs on the season.
Eastern Michigan’s lead was again nine with just under five minutes to play when baskets by Threloff and Aaric Armstead cut the Eagle lead back to five, 59-54, with 4:20 left. Following a split of two free throws by the Eagles, a pair from the line by Aaron Armstead pulled the Huskies within four, 60-56, with 3:13 to play.
The Eagles responded with a three-point play to move back in front by seven and, despite not making a field goal in the final three minutes, hung on for the victory.
Mike Talley scored 25 points to lead the Eagles, Karrington Ward added 21 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Eastern Michigan jumped out to a quick start in the contest, leading by nine, 16-7, inside the opening five minutes.
NIU (10-15, 4-10 MAC) quickly trimmed the lead back to four on a free throw by Iroegbu and baskets by Johnson and Aaric Armstead.
Following a pair of free throws from redshirt junior Keith Gray , the Eastern Michigan lead was again four, 22-18, when the Eagles used a 17-2 run to extend their lead to 19, 39-20, with 3:22 to play in the first half.
NIU scored four of the last five in the half to trim the Eastern Michigan lead to 40-24 at the intermission. Mike Talley scored 19 points in the first half to lead the Eagles; Johnson had eight in the opening 20 minutes to pace the Huskies.
NIU will return to the road on Tuesday, Feb. 24, as the Huskies travel to Toledo.
