Dec. 3, 2010

Final Stats

Final Box in PDF Format

ROSEMONT, Ill. - After trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half to DePaul, the Northern Illinois men's basketball team rallied back only to come up one basket shy. The Huskies fell 86-84 to the Blue Demons at Allstate Arena on Thursday night. Both teams moved to 2-4 on the season in the decision.

A turnover that turned into a fast break jam for DePaul's Cleveland Melvin gave the Blue Demons a 35-18 edge with 3:51 to go in the first half. But from that point on, NIU outplayed DePaul, holding a 66-51 advantage in points over the final 23:51 of the game.

NIU finished the first half strong, outscoring DePaul 10-3 over the final 3:40 of the half with an energetic boost off the bench by freshman Tre Edwards, who made his Huskie debut with four points. A drive and dish by Edwards to Nate Rucker led to a layup and foul to start the run. Edwards then stole the outlet pass on the missed free throw for an easy layup. One possession later, Edwards hit a step-back jumper from the top of the key to cut the lead to 36-24.

"Tre is a young man that had a fabulous practice a couple days before Boise State and missed that game because he was sick," said NIU head coach Ricardo Patton. "Tre gave us a big boost off the bench and did a great job. He's a non-scholarship guy that works hard."

After a fast break dunk by Mike Stovall, Rucker scrapped a loose ball rebound for a layup. Following a concerted effort for a defensive stop, Jeremy Landers drove to the basket and made a no-look pass behind a defender's back to Rucker for a layup with 46 seconds left. With momentum on their side, the Huskies trimmed the deficit to 38-28 at the half.

NIU continued chipping away at the lead in the second half, outscoring DePaul 56-48. A pair of free throws by Xavier Silas at 16:30 brought the Huskies within eight, 48-40, but the Blue Demons bounced back to take a 16-point edge, 64-48, after two free throws from Stovall with 11:12 remaining.

On the road in front of 7,004 fans, NIU did not get discouraged as the Huskies worked for a 36-22 scoring advantage over the last 11 minutes behind several key shots by Landers. The senior started the run with a layup, hit a floater in the lane and later hit a jumper from the left corner to cut the margin to eight, 68-60, with 7:21. After Silas sailed in for a layup to cut the lead to 71-66 with 5:55 to go, DePaul answered with consecutive buckets. Landers countered with a three from the right wing to make the score 75-69 with 5:09 to go.

"That's the Jeremy Landers we see in practice every day," Patton said. "For whatever reason when the lights come on, he relinquishes his scoring, because he's such an unselfish kid. It was nice to see him step up tonight."

After scoring four straight points, Silas set up Tony Nixon in the right corner and the sophomore buried a three to leave NIU down by just three, 79-76, with 1:38 remaining. Brandon Young responded for the Blue Demons with a jumper in the lane and Nixon's floater in the lane on NIU's next possession rimmed out, which led to a foul a two converted free throws for DePaul. Landers fired back with a three from the left corner to pull NIU within four, 83-79, with 22 seconds left. But the Huskies simply ran out of time.

Following each team exchanging free throws, Young committed an offensive foul on an inbounding play to give the ball back to NIU with 15 seconds left. Silas and Nixon each missed a shot from the left corner before Krys Faber grabbed the rebound and hit a free throw to seal it, despite Silas' three-pointer just before time expired.

Silas led all scorers with 34 points, marking the third time in the last four games that he has reached his career high. The nation's seventh leading scorer sustained his accurate and efficient scoring trend, going 12-for-17 from the field and hitting two of four three-pointers. Prior to the game he had a 24.8 points per game average and now has a 26.3.

Tony Freeland led the Blue Demons with 25 points, more than half coming from the free throw line. The forward went 13-for-16 from the charity stripe as he was a large reason for DePaul's sizeable free throw advantage. The Blue Demons converted on 32 of 41 trips to the line, while the Huskies made 11 for 18.

"When you're opponent attempts 41 [free throws] to your 18 and you lose by two points, I don't know what else we could have done other than not get down by 17," said Patton. "But I'm so proud of these guys for fighting hard in this game. Our fans at home haven't seen this team [play like this]. The Boise State game wasn't fair to our fans. We challenged the guys after [this] game to let the fans at home see this team. Again, I'm really proud of these guys. I think that this team will just get better and better."

Along with Silas' pinpoint performance, Landers and Rucker combined to go 11-for-13 from the field, as the Huskies shot 54 percent (34-for-63) and held DePaul to a 44.8 field goal percentage (26-for-58). Landers was a perfect 6-for-6 in tying his career high with 14 points. Rucker went 5-for-7 on field goals for 13 points, his third double digit output of the season. The freshman forward also led NIU with eight rebounds.

Bryan Hall continued to define exactly what the point guard position is all about, leading the Huskies with five assists and no turnovers, adding six points, three rebounds and two steals to boot. Over his last four games, the junior has dished out 20 assists and racked up seven steals while committing just two turnovers in 93 minutes.

"Bryan Hall has really been an unsung hero in my eyes this season," said Patton. "He's really improved and gotten better each year."

With final exams scheduled for next week, the Huskies will have their longest break between games of the season. NIU will have a 12-day layoff before returning to the NIU Convocation Center to play host to Illinois-Chicago (4-3) Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. (CT).