Senior Eugene German scored . . .
Willie Jackson scored a team-high 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Rockets, Marreon Jackson added 12 points.
With the win, NIU improves to 18-12 overall, 11-6 in conference play. The Huskies have a one-game lead over Ball State in the MAC West and will meet the Cardinals for the chance to claim the division title outright on Friday night. NIU’s 18 victories is the sixth-most in the single-season in program history and the share of the division title is NIU’s first since the 2005-06 season.
“Our guys, you could just tell, they were ready to go from the beginning,” said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. “Our defense was incredible, when you hold a team like Toledo to 17 points in the first half … I thought we controlled tempo, we executed our offense, this is probably the best game we have played all season and it couldn’t have come at a better time.”
The Huskies shot 50 percent (26-of-52) from the floor, including 47.1 percent (8-of-17) from three-point range while holding the Rockets to just 29.8 percent (17-of-57) shooting and 20.8 percent (5-of-24) from beyond the arc.
NIU scored the first six of the contest as triples from Hankerson and German gave the Huskies the early advantage.
An 8-0 run by NIU gave the Huskies a 14-5 lead with 11:35 left in the opening half. Senior Noah McCarty opened the run with a bucket, Cochran added a layup, German made a pair at the line and junior Zaire Mateen finished with a layup on the break as the Huskies took a nine-point lead.
After a basket by Toledo trimmed the NIU lead to seven, James made a pair of free throws and Hankerson connected on a jumper as NIU led, 18-7, just before the midway point of the opening half.
A Toledo triple trimmed the NIU lead to nine before buckets from James and Hankerson helped the NIU lead balloon to 27-14 with 4:25 left before the break. German added another basket as the Huskies pushed their lead to 15. Toledo trimmed the NIU advantage back to 14 before James had a tip-in to beat the buzzer, giving the Huskies a 33-17 lead at the half.
German led all scorers with 11 points at the half. NIU shot 44.8 percent (13-of-29) in the opening 20 minutes while holding Toledo to just 22.2 percent (6-of-27) shooting. The 17 points allowed by the fewest by a Huskie opponent in a half this season, bettering the 20 points scored by Rockford in the second half on Nov. 16, 2019.
A triple from junior Gairges Daow pushed the Huskie advantage to 41-21 just over five minutes into the second half. Toledo answered with the next five but NIU came right back with four-straight to lead 45-26 with 12:42 to go.
With NIU in front by 17, German made a pair of buckets, including a spectacular spinning through the lane layup, as the Huskies took a 51-30 lead with just over eight minutes remaining.
German’s 22 points tonight give him 2,188 in his career, moving him past Paul Graham (Ohio, 1985-89, 2,170 points) into fifth on the all-time MAC scoring list.
A triple from the wing from Hankerson, followed back a trifecta from nearly the same spot by German, gave the Huskies a 57-30 lead, forcing a Toledo timeout with 6:28 left and the Huskies never looked back.