NIU held Saint Mary’s, who . . .
“We came out at halftime down eight, but we cut (the lead) to one,” said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. “Saint Mary’s came in shooting 51 (percent) from the field, 45 (percent) from three, and we held them under 40 (from the field) and 35 (from three) … we battled these guys tooth and nail, we were right there in the ballgame.”
Saint Mary’s (9-1) scored the opening eight points of the contest as the Gaels got the early jump on the Huskies before German made a pair of free throws.
The Gaels still led by eight, 11-3, when an 8-2 burst pushed the Saint Mary’s lead to 19-5 with just under nine minutes to play in the opening half, forcing a Huskie timeout.
NIU (6-3) went on an 11-2 run out of the timeout to cut the Saint Mary’s lead back to five. Sophomore Trendon Hankerson, junior Gairges Daow , German and freshman Tyler Cochran all made baskets during the run, which was capped by German’s second finish at the rim, as the Huskies cut the Gaels lead to 21-16 with just under four minutes to play before the intermission.
Saint Mary’s has pushed its advantage back to 11 in the final minute of the first half before a triple from senior Lacey James cut the Gaels lead to 30-22 at the break. NIU made seven of its final nine shots to close the half.
The Huskies were the quicker team out of the gates to start the second half as Daow scored the first five and James added a bucket to trim the Saint Mary’s lead to just one, 30-29, two minutes into the second stanza.
Daow finished the contest with seven points, while James chipped in nine points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
Saint Mary’s led by three when a 6-0 burst pushed the Gaels lead to 42-33. NIU answered right back with the next five as James made a pair of free throws and senior Noah McCarty knocked in a triple from the top of the key as the Saint Mary’s advantage was trimmed to 42-38 with just under 13 minutes left.
Despite going without a field goal over eight minutes, Saint Mary’s was able to build upon its lead from the free-throw line and when Kristers Zoriks snapped the draught from the floor with a triple, the Gaels were in front 50-40 with 6:20 to play.
After NIU cut the Saint Mary’s lead back to seven, the Gaels scored the next four, including a triple from Tanner Krebs, his fourth of the night, as the Saint Mary’s lead ballooned to 54-43 and the Gaels came away with the victory.
Krebs scored a team-high 14 points to pace Saint Mary’s, Malik Fitts had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, national player of the year candidate Jordan Ford scored 12 points and Zoriks had 10 points off the bench.
NIU will continue its two-game California swing on Saturday, December 7, as the Huskies travel to UC Davis. Tipoff against the Aggies is slated for 7 p.m. CT.
(Courtesy of NIU Athletics)