NIU held Western Michigan to . . .
Senior Eugene German scored a team-high 12 points while sophomores Trendon Hankerson and Darius Beane each chipped in 11.
“It was a typical MAC game,” said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. “Unbelievable defense was played on both ends; it was hard to score. I think we finally broke loose in the second half when we got some stops and got out in transition … Tyler Cochran’s energy off the bench, his six points and six rebounds, sparked us. We had multiple guys in double figures, but this is life in the MAC, where every game is a dogfight until the end.”
An early 7-0 burst gave the Huskies a 7-3 lead in the opening three minutes of the contest, German scored four of the seven and found Hankerson for a trifecta as NIU took the early lead.
Hankerson, who came into the contest as the leading three-point shooter in the MAC, finished 3-of-3 from beyond the arc.
With the Huskies in front 11-5, Western Michigan scored the next five to trim the NIU advantage to just one. The Huskie lead was three before back-to-back triples from Jared Printy gave the Broncos a 16-13 lead with just over eight minutes to play in the half.
NIU (11-9, 4-3 MAC) went back in front as the Huskies scored six-straight on buckets from senior Lacey James and Beane, sandwiched around a pair of free throws from junior Gairges Daow, giving the Huskies a 21-16 lead with 5:43 left before the intermission. James finished with seven points and a game-high tying seven rebounds.
Western Michigan (9-11, 2-5 MAC) used a 10-0 run to take a 26-21 lead with a little over three minutes to play in the half, but NIU answered with a triple from Hankerson and a layup by Beane as the contest went to the intermission tied at 26.
Beane, German and Hankerson all had six points at the break for the Huskies, Western Michigan was led by nine points from B Artis White, all on three-pointers as the Broncos were 7-of-14 from beyond the arc as a team.
With the Broncos in front by four, NIU used a 7-0 burst to take a 41-38 lead with 11:38 left in the contest. Junior Nathan Scott opened the run with a basket off a put-back, Daow made a pair from the line and Beane connected on a triple from the wing as the Huskies took a three-point lead.
Tied at 43, NIU used a 7-0 run to move in front, 50-43, lead with just under eight minutes remaining. Hankerson opened the run with a trifecta, followed by a dunk on a runout before Beane finished through contact at the rim to extend the Huskie advantage.
Leading by a half-dozen, freshman Tyler Cochran scored off a feed from senior Noah McCarty with 5:05 left to give NIU a 54-46 lead. Both teams were then held scoreless for more than three minutes until an old-fashioned three-point play brought the Broncos within five with two minutes to go.
Cochran scored the next four however as the Huskies put the Broncos away. The freshman from Bolingbrook, Ill., finished with six points and six rebounds, with all six points and five of the six rebounds coming in the final 10 minutes.
Michael Flowers scored a game-high 14 points to lead Western Michigan, Brandon Johnson added 12 points for the Broncos.