DEKALB, Ill. – Although the calendar says December, the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team and Ball State dueled in a conference opener that looked more like late February as the Cardinals outlasted the Huskies, 79-70, in overtime on Tuesday night (Dec. 8) at the NIU Convocation Center. 

Junior Darius Beane (Carbondale, Ill./Southern Illinois) netted a career-high 18 points and junior Trendon Hankerson (Novi, Mich./Novi) tied his career-high with 18 but Ball State was a perfect 4-of-4 from the field in overtime, including 2-of-2 from three, to upend the Huskies in the extra session. 

"Typical MAC game, conference opener for both teams, played extremely hard, tough defense, I'm proud of my guys," said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. "Everyone knows I'm not one to make excuses, but we are under-manned (without Tyler Cochran and Nathan Scott) … you need depth in these games and unfortunately our guys just ran out of energy."

Ball State went to the line 39 times in the contest, converting 25 (64.1 percent), while NIU earned just 21 trips to the charity stripe, making 15 (71.4 percent). 

Sophomore Kaleb Thornton (Bolingbrook, Ill./Iowa Western CC) scored a career high nine points and grabbed a team-best six rebounds, junior Chinedu Kingsley Okanu (Gary, Ind./Vincennes University) also had a career-best nine points. 

A triple by Hankerson gave NIU a 7-6 lead less than four minutes into the contest and ignited a 12-2 Huskie run. Thornton added a trifecta, Okanu added a basket and Beane scored four-straight as the Huskies led, 16-8, just before the midway point of the opening half. 

NIU (0-4, 0-1 MAC) led by nine when Ball State used an 8-1 run to trim the Huskie lead to just a pair, 25-23, with 4:22 left before the break. Okanu scored the next four to help push the Huskie advantage back to a half-dozen.

Five points from Beane helped the NIU lead get back to nine, 34-25, before Ball State beat the buzzer with a triple to close the half, cutting the Huskie advantage to six at the intermission. 

Beane led NIU with 11 in the opening 20 minutes, Okanu added eight. K.J. Walton had nine points to pace the Cardinals in the first half. 

Ball State used a 9-3 spurt to start the second half to pull even at 37 with just over 16 minutes left.

A jumper from Beane sparked an 8-0 NIU run as Hankerson connected on back-to-back triples to push the Huskies back in front, 47-42, with 11:03 remaining. 

A layup from Thornton, followed by a free throw from junior Zool Kueth (Gallatin, Tenn./Pratt CC) and two from the charity stripe from Thornton gave the Huskies a 54-46 advantage, but Ball State responded with the next six, trimming the NIU lead to just a pair with 6:28 left. 

With NIU in front by four, the Cardinals scored five-straight to take a 62-61 lead with 48 seconds left. On the next possession, junior Adong Makuoi (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada/Daytona State College) knocked down a jump hook to move NIU back in front with 35 ticks remaining. 

Ball State split a pair of free throws with 16 seconds on the clock to even the contest at 63 before the Huskies came up empty on their final possession of regulation. 

In the overtime, the Cardinals made back-to-back triples to start and raced to an 11-point lead as they went on to the road victory.

Walton and Ishmael El-Amin each scored 18 points to lead the way for Ball State, Miryne Thomas added 13 points. 

The Huskies will return to non-conference play on Sunday, December 13, when they travel to Iowa City, to meet the third-ranked Hawkeyes. Game time against Iowa is slated for 1 p.m. and will be televised on Fox Sports 1.