JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Trailing by 25 points with 8:45 to play, the Northern Illinois University Huskies staged a furious comeback that included a 17-0 run, before running out of time and falling to the Little Rock Trojans, 67-60 in their final game at the Jacksonville Classic, presented by Fabletics.
 
The Huskies (1-4) trailed 54-29 with 9:36 on the clock when Trendon Hankerson scored his first basket of the game, a three-point shot, that was answered by Little Rock's Nikola Maric to extend the Trojans' lead back to 25 at 57-32. 
 
From that point, the Huskies ran off 17 consecutive points and outscored UALR 36-17 in the final 12 minutes of the game. First, Hankerson fed Zool Kueth for the first of his four three-pointers. Montavious Myrick scored in the paint and Hankerson hit from three to cut the lead to 17. Freshman Zion Russell made a pair of free throws and Kaleb Thornton connected on a three off a Myrick steal as the lead was cut to 57-45.
 
Hankerson made a steal – one of a team-leading three in the game – and fed Kueth for a triple and NIU was within double digits for the first time since the 5:37 mark of the first half.  A Hankerson free throw cut the lead to eight before the Trojans' DeAntoni Gordon made a pair of three throws with 2:08 to play to push the margin back to 10.
 
The Huskies, with a line-up that included Russell, Hankerson, Myrick, Thornton and Kueth, along with Darweshi Hunter and Edward Manuel at times, continued to pressure Little Rock. A third Kueth three trimmed the margin to seven again at 59-52 with 1:10 to play before the Trojans' D.J. Smith hit a pair of free throws.
 
"Those guys competed at a high level which I love, so that's a positive we can take away from this," said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. "Those guys stepped up they showed a lot of heart and a lot of determination… they did some things today that influenced games and brought us back in this game.
Zool made some threes, the guys at the bottom half of the stat sheet changed the game. We're still young, this is early in the season, and we're facing a lot of older teams who are beating us in certain segments. We have to find a way to stop the bleeding and make a run."
 
Kueth's fourth and final three of the game - he finished the game 4-of-8 from long range – came after UALR hit two more free throws and cut the lead to six with 47 seconds to play. Four straight made free throws sandwiched around a Huskie turnover sealed the win for Little Rock at the 29 second mark, with Thornton scoring the last of his team-leading 15 points on a layup with 25 seconds left to trim the lead back to eight at 65-57.
 
NIU fouled twice more and nearly forced a pair of turnovers – one off an inbounds play and another on a five-second call in the final seconds, but UALR made two of four free throws to reach 67 points. Their last 10 points came at the line, where the Trojans' shot 18-of-25 for the game. NIU's Manuel made three free throws when he was fouled on a three with one second remaining for the final margin.
 
Thornton made 5-of-8 shots from the field, including 3-of-3 from three en route to his team-leading 15 points, and had four assists.  Hankerson scored all 10 of his points in the final nine minutes and added three steals and three assists, while Kueth's 12 points were a season high. Kingsley Okanu led NIU on the boards with seven.
 
NIU shot 46.2 percent from the field in the second half, including 9-of-18 from three-point range after making just six field goals and scoring 18 points in the first half.
 
"The negatives are we're still in the 30s in two-point field goal percentage, and we shot 50 percent from the foul line and it's hard to win a game, especially a competitive game, shooting 50 percent on free throws," Burno said. "When you struggle to score, you have to create offense through your defense and we did that late. We'll take this, learn from it and we're going to get better.
 
Little Rock (4-2) led 34-18 at the break as they jumped out to a 5-0 lead and extended it to 27-11 on a Jovan Stulic three to conclude a 17-4 run with 4:03 to play in the half. Gordon scored nine points in the first half to lead UALR and finished with a game-high 16, along with nine rebounds, for the Trojans.
 
Following a road game at Marquette on November 27, the Huskies will play their first regular season home game of 2021-22 on Wednesday, December 1 versus Eastern Illinois. A season ticket to see all 12 regular season home games begins at just $80 and is available to purchase online anytime at NIUHuskies.com or Monday through Friday by calling 815-753-7225.
 
-- NIU --