By MIKE SMITH
While the Northern Illinois Huskies have gone winless in Mid-American Conference road games, they had not lost a home game in MAC prior to Saturday.
That first home loss came Saturday as visiting Miami put together strong defensive and offensive efforts to hang an 81-65 loss on NIU.
"In all phases of . . .
While the Northern Illinois Huskies have gone winless in Mid-American Conference road games, they had not lost a home game in MAC prior to Saturday.
That first home loss came Saturday as visiting Miami put together strong defensive and offensive efforts to hang an 81-65 loss on NIU.
"In all phases of . . .
. . . the game Miami outplayed us," said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. "They came out with great energy and our sense of urgency at the beginning just wasn't there, our defense wasn't there.”
Miami shot 58.2 percent overall, connecting on 32 of 55 tries. The RedHawks were good on 40 percent (8 of 20) of their threes.
Meanwhile, Northern Illinois made 24 of 57 (42.1%) from the floor and just 5 of 17 triples (29.4%).
“We missed some tough shots early, where the ball just wouldn't go in the basket, and I think that affected our defense and you can't do that,” Montgomery said. “If you're not scoring that ball, you still have to defend the ball, and we didn't do that this afternoon.”
The RedHawks had started slow in a win over Akron Tuesday, but they got things going early against NIU. Miami had a 7-0 advantage less than two minutes into the contest and was up 17-6 by the 13:38 mark.
While the Huskies didn’t have any protracted scoreless spells, they could not keep up with a RedHawk offense that made 51.7 percent of its shots prior to intermission.
Miami enjoyed a big 19-point lead (37-18) before Northern finished the period on a 10-1 run. Six of the Huskies points came at the line. Of the two field goals, the second was provided by Eugene German.
It was the first field goal of the game for German, who entered Saturday as the MAC’s leading scorer. Averaging just short of 20 ppg., he finished with just two field goals and 10 points against the MAC’s top-defense.
NIU carried its momentum early in the second half, scoring the first three points to trail by seven. However, the freshman duo of Dalonte Brown and Nike Sebande combined for all Miami’s points in a 12-5 RedHawk surge that left the visitors in front 60-36.
Northern battled back, cutting the lead to single digits (58-49) following a basket by sophomore Justin Thomas at 10:20. Miami then responded with what turned out to be a knockout rally.
Sibande started a 13-2 run with two free throws. Isaiah Coleman-Lands then provided nine of the next 11 points with three treys. Brown worked in a dunk along the way and Miami owned a 71-51 lead with 6:15 remaining. MU cruised the rest of the way.
Sibande led all scorers with 20 points. Adaway provided 17 points, followed by Coleman-Lands with 16 off the bench. All three are freshman. Sophomore center Bam Bowman also reached double figures with 10 points.
NIU sophomore guard Justin Thomas made 5 of 8 field goal attempts on the way to a team-high 14 points. German and junior Levi Bradley each tallied 10 points.
NEXT:
Northern Illinois will be at Toledo Tueesday, while Miami visits Western Michigan. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.
Miami shot 58.2 percent overall, connecting on 32 of 55 tries. The RedHawks were good on 40 percent (8 of 20) of their threes.
Meanwhile, Northern Illinois made 24 of 57 (42.1%) from the floor and just 5 of 17 triples (29.4%).
“We missed some tough shots early, where the ball just wouldn't go in the basket, and I think that affected our defense and you can't do that,” Montgomery said. “If you're not scoring that ball, you still have to defend the ball, and we didn't do that this afternoon.”
The RedHawks had started slow in a win over Akron Tuesday, but they got things going early against NIU. Miami had a 7-0 advantage less than two minutes into the contest and was up 17-6 by the 13:38 mark.
While the Huskies didn’t have any protracted scoreless spells, they could not keep up with a RedHawk offense that made 51.7 percent of its shots prior to intermission.
Miami enjoyed a big 19-point lead (37-18) before Northern finished the period on a 10-1 run. Six of the Huskies points came at the line. Of the two field goals, the second was provided by Eugene German.
It was the first field goal of the game for German, who entered Saturday as the MAC’s leading scorer. Averaging just short of 20 ppg., he finished with just two field goals and 10 points against the MAC’s top-defense.
NIU carried its momentum early in the second half, scoring the first three points to trail by seven. However, the freshman duo of Dalonte Brown and Nike Sebande combined for all Miami’s points in a 12-5 RedHawk surge that left the visitors in front 60-36.
Northern battled back, cutting the lead to single digits (58-49) following a basket by sophomore Justin Thomas at 10:20. Miami then responded with what turned out to be a knockout rally.
Sibande started a 13-2 run with two free throws. Isaiah Coleman-Lands then provided nine of the next 11 points with three treys. Brown worked in a dunk along the way and Miami owned a 71-51 lead with 6:15 remaining. MU cruised the rest of the way.
Sibande led all scorers with 20 points. Adaway provided 17 points, followed by Coleman-Lands with 16 off the bench. All three are freshman. Sophomore center Bam Bowman also reached double figures with 10 points.
NIU sophomore guard Justin Thomas made 5 of 8 field goal attempts on the way to a team-high 14 points. German and junior Levi Bradley each tallied 10 points.
NEXT:
Northern Illinois will be at Toledo Tueesday, while Miami visits Western Michigan. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.
RSS Feed