DEKALB, Ill. -- Leading by 15 with two minutes to play, the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team withstood a late Eastern Michigan run to earn a 71-68 victory over the Eagles on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 11) at the NIU Convocation Center. 

Senior Eugene German (Gary, Ind./21st Century Charter) scored 17 points while senior Noah McCarty (Rock Falls, Ill./Sterling Newman) tied a career-high with 14 as the Huskies improved to 9-7 overall, 2-1 in Mid-American Conference play. 

"The good news is we closed it out and won the game," said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. "I thought we dominated for 38 minutes. "We played well, we defended well, we rebounded, we had 18 assists, we did a lot of things at a high level, we just have to learn how to close teams out with four minutes to go, that is a work in progress."

A basket by sophomore Trendon Hankerson (Novi, Mich./Novi) gave the Huskies a 64-49 lead with 2:07 to play before back-to-back triples from Noah Morgan quickly trimmed the lead back to nine. Another three with 35 seconds remaining pulled the Eagles within four, 66-62. A free throw from Hankerson made the NIU lead five but Morgan made a bucket on the other end, and was fouled, with 24 seconds left. 

Morgan missed the free throw, but Eastern Michigan got the offensive rebound and Yeikson Montero scored to cut the NIU advantage to 67-66. 

With 19 seconds to play, junior Rod Henry-Hayes (Zion, Ill./Zion-Benton Township) made a pair at the line to increase the NIU lead to three. A defensive stop, followed by two more free throws by Henry-Hayes with nine seconds left finally put the game on ice for the Huskies. 

Eastern Michigan (10-6, 0-3 MAC) had a 7-4 lead in the early going before NIU used a 10-0 run to take a seven-point lead. German ignited the burst with five, Henry-Hayes added a triple and junior Nathan Scott (Naperville, Ill./Olney Central College) knocked down a jumper as the Huskies led 14-7 with 10:41 to play in the opening half. 

The Eagles scored the next half-dozen to trim the NIU advantage to one before a triple by Hankerson stopped the Eastern Michigan burst. 

Hankerson finished with nine points and a career-best six assists. 

A 9-2 run gave Eastern Michigan a three-point lead, 22-19, before buckets from freshman Tyler Cochran (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) and McCarty gave the lead back to the Huskies, 23-22, with just under four minutes to play in the half. 

After an Eastern Michigan basket cut the NIU lead back to one, the Huskies closed the half with the next nine as NIU took a 32-24 lead into the intermission. Sophomore Darius Beane (Carbondale, Ill./Southern Illinois) started the run with a triple, Cochran added the next three, Hankerson had a pair of free throws and McCarty made a free throw to give the Huskies an eight-point lead at the break. 

NIU scored the first six points out of the intermission as the Huskie lead grew to 14. McCarty and senior Lacey James (Grand Rapids, Mich./Rider) each converted baskets and German made a pair of free throws to give NIU a 38-24 lead two minutes into the second stanza. 

The Huskie advantage was 11 when consecutive buckets from Scott and a trifecta from German ballooned the NIU lead to 47-29 with 14:34 left. 

NIU was still up 18 with just under 11 minutes remaining before Eastern Michigan used a 10-2 run to pull back within 10, 56-56, with a little over five minutes to play. 

A triple by German helped the Huskie lead grow back to 13 and the advantage was up to 15 with just over two minutes left before the late comeback attempt by the Eagles. 

Morgan led Eastern Michigan with 16 points off the bench, Montero added 15 points while Boubacar Toure scored 14 points with 11 rebounds. 

NIU will be home again on Tuesday night, January 14, as the Huskies welcome MAC leading Akron to DeKalb. Tipoff against the Zips is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tickets for all remaining home games, including flex passes, are available now at NIUHuskies.com/tickets or by calling 815-753-PACK (7225).