DEKALB, Ill. – A red-hot start helped lead Akron to a 72-49 victory over the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team on Tuesday night (Jan. 14) at the NIU Convocation Center. The Zips made five triples in the first six minutes of the contest to build an early 12-point lead and never looked back. 

Senior Eugene German (Gary, Ind./21st Century Charter) scored a team-high 17 points with a team-best eight rebounds, freshman Tyler Cochran (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds. 

"You have to credit Akron," said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. "They came out and punched us in the face and we just couldn't get going. We missed shots; we didn't get stops defensively. It would have been nice if we had started the game the way we started the second half, more aggressive on both ends."

Akron (14-3, 4-0 MAC) raced out to an early 8-0 lead before German scored on a coast-to-coast layup off a turnover to get the Huskies on the board. 

An old-fashioned three-point play from sophomore Darius Beane (Carbondale, Ill./Southern Illinois) trimmed the Akron lead to a half-dozen, but Akron answered with back-to-back triples to push its lead to 17-5 with 13:30 to play in the opening half. 

The Zips led 23-8 until a 9-2 burst for the Huskies trimmed the Akron lead back to 25-17. Junior Rod Henry-Hayes (Zion, Ill./Zion-Benton Township) opened the run with a triple, Cochran added a basket and German scored the next four as NIU cut the Akron lead to eight with 8:04 left in the first half. 

Akron then closed the half with a 19-3 run as the Zips took a 44-20 lead into halftime. Akron shot 53.3 percent (16-of-30) in the opening 20 minutes, including 57.1 percent (8-of-14) from three-point range, while holding NIU to just 17.9 percent (7-of-39) shooting. 

NIU (9-8, 2-2 MAC) scored the first nine to open the second half as German netted five while Sophomore Trendon Hankerson (Novi, Mich./Novi) and Cochran each added a basket as the Huskies trimmed the Akron lead to 44-29 in the first four minutes of the second half. 

After a pair of free throws by the Zips, NIU answered with the next nine on another bucket from Cochran, a triple from senior Noah McCarty (Rock Falls, Ill./Sterling Newman) and a pair of baskets from senior Lacey James (Grand Rapids, Mich./Rider) as the Huskies cut the Zips lead back to single-digits, 46-38, with 13:28 to play. 

Akron answered with a 13-2 run as the Zips lead ballooned to 59-40 with just over nine minutes left as Akron never looked back. 

Tyler Cheese led the Zips with 23 points, Loren Cristian Jackson added 17 and Xeyrius Williams scored 12 points to go along with a game-high 13 rebounds. 

NIU will head back on the road for its next two contests, beginning on Saturday afternoon, January 18, as the Huskies visit Bowling Green. Tipoff against the Falcons is slated for 3 p.m. CT and will be available on ESPN+.