DEKALB, Ill. – Four players scored in double figures and seven grabbed at least five rebounds as the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team topped Coppin State, 81-69, on Friday night (Nov. 15) at the NIU Convocation Center. 

Senior Eugene German (Gary, Ind./21st Century Charter) scored a game-high 23 points, junior Nathan Scott (Naperville, Ill./Olney Central College) had a career-best 18, sophomore Darius Beane (Carbondale, Ill./Southern Illinois) added 12 points and senior Lacey James (Grand Rapids, Mich./Rider) chipped in 11 as the Huskies never trailed against the Eagle. 

"It's always fun when I can say Huskies win," said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. "I thought we got a lot of good basketball out of everyone that played (tonight). We have four guys in double figures, our defense was stingy, holding (Coppin State) under 40 percent shooting, under 30 percent from three-point shooting. They are a dangerous team, they came in very confident from their win at Loyola, but I know out guys were locked in.

"I don't know that we played 40 minutes, but it was darn close, and we needed every single one of those minutes to win the game."

NIU (1-2) jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the opening four minutes as James scored four points and Scott had five-straight to give the Huskies the early advantage. 

Scott grabbed a game-high eight rebounds to go along with his 18 points in the contest, freshman Tyler Cochran (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) also grabbed eight boards. 

A basket by Beane pushed the NIU lead to 16-7 before Coppin State answered with the next eight to cut the Huskie advantage to just one, 16-15, with a little over 11 minutes to play in the opening half. 

Coppin State (1-3) tied the game at 18 before the Huskies used a 10-2 burst to move back in front by eight. Scott scored the first four of the run, German added a pair and Beane scored the final four as the Huskies led, 28-20, with 5:47 left before the intermission. 

The Huskies led by five before closing the half with a 6-3 spurt, with all six coming from the free-throw line, to take a 37-29 lead into halftime. 

Scott had a team-high 11 points at the intermission, German and Beane each had eight points at the break. 

Coppin State used an 8-1 run to open the second half to cut the Huskie lead to just a pair, 39-37, less than two minutes into the second stanza. 

NIU responded with a 9-1 burst as the Huskie lead ballooned back to double-digits. German canned a triple and Beane converted a pair at the line to close the run as the Huskies led, 48-38, with 14:11 to go. 

The Eagles came right back to close within a half-dozen until Scott scored seven-straight, one from the free-throw line before back-to-back triples, as NIU pushed its lead to 58-45 with a little over nine minutes remaining.

Coppin State closed the gap to 10 with 3:18 left before three points from James and a pair of free throws by German pushed the Huskie advantage to 73-58, putting the game away. 

German finished with seven rebounds and three assists to go along with his 23 points, Beane grabbed six rebounds and registered three steals. 

Dejuan Clayton had a team-best 17 points to pace Coppin State, Andrew Robinson added 16 points and Kamar McKnight had 15 points. 

NIU will have a quick turnaround as the Huskies are back in action Saturday afternoon, November 16, as they welcome Rockford University to the NIU Convocation Center. Tipoff against the Regents is set for 3 p.m.