OXFORD, Ohio – After trailing by as much as 20, the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team pulled within seven in the second half but was unable to complete the comeback as the Huskies fell to Miami, 70-58, on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 9) at Millett Hall. 

Junior Trendon Hankerson (Novi, Mich./Novi) scored a team-best 16 points while junior Chinedu Kingsley Okanu (Gary, Ind./Vincennes University) had a career-high 12 points. 

"It started with stops," NIU interim head coach Lamar Chapman said of the Huskies run to close the gap. "Our offense came around a little bit, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. When we got it to seven or nine, we would have a turnover issue, we had a couple of bad possessions where we didn't get a quality shot.

"Forty points (allowed) was too many in the first half, but we battled, we kept fighting, which I appreciate, but we need some of that earlier."

NIU (1-9, 0-5 MAC) led by three in the early going, 6-3, with Hankerson scoring four early points, but Miami used a 13-2 run to take a 16-8 lead with 12:39 left in the opening half, forcing a Huskie timeout. 

After the timeout, sophomore Kaleb Thornton (Bolingbrook, Ill./Iowa Western CC) converted an old-fashioned three-point play as the Huskies trimmed the RedHawk lead to just five, but Miami answered with the next six as the RedHawks pushed their advantage to 22-11 just past the midway point of the opening half. 

Thornton finished with eight points, one off his career high, and three assists. 

Miami's lead grew to as much as 19 in the opening half until a 6-3 burst for NIU in the final minute trimmed the RedHawk advantage to 40-24 at the break. Okanu, senior Nathan Scott (Naperville, Ill./Olney Central College) and Thornton each made a basket during the spurt. 

Myja White led all scorers with 12 points, on 4-of-4 from three-point range, in the opening 20 minutes, Hankerson and Thornton each had eight points to pace the Huskies. 

Miami (4-3, 1-1 MAC) scored the first four to start the second half before NIU answered with 9-0 burst, trimming the RedHawk lead to 44-33 with 15:50 left. Hankerson had five during the run while junior Adong Makuoi (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada/Daytona State College) and junior Darius Beane (Carbondale, Ill./Southern Illinois) each chipped in a basket. 

With the RedHawks in front 48-35, NIU used a 5-0 spurt, capped by a bucket from Beane, to cut the Miami lead to single digits, 48-40, with just over 12 minutes to play. 

A triple by Hankerson cut the Miami advantage to 52-45 with 8:33 left, but that is as close as the Huskies would get as Miami used a 12-3 spurt to push its advantage to 16 as the RedHawks went on to earn the victory. 

Elijah McNamara scored a team-high 15 points to pace Miami. Mekhi Lairy added 13 while Dae Dae Grant and White each finished with 12 points. 

NIU will return home on Tuesday, January 12 as the Huskies host Akron. Please note, Tuesday's game time has been changed to 2 p.m. and the contest will be available on ESPN+.