YPSILANTI, Mich. – The Northern Illinois University men's basketball team erased a nine-point deficit in the final four minutes, only to see Eastern Michigan reclaim the lead and earn a 74-72 victory on Tuesday night (Feb. 22) at the George Gervin GameAbove Center.
Keshawn Williams (Chicago Heights, Ill./Tulsa) scored a team-high 24 points for the Huskies while
Trendon Hankerson (Novi, Mich./Novi) and
Kaleb Thornton (Bolingbrook, Ill./Iowa Western CC) each added 10 points.
A quick 6-0 run gave NIU an 11-4 lead in the early going. Williams finished an alley-oop from Thornton to start the run,
Adong Makuoi (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada/Daytona State College) finished at the rim and
Anthony Crump (Inkster, Mich./Middle Tennessee) scored off a turnover to give the Huskies a seven-point edge in the opening four minutes of the contest.
Crump finished with eight points and a team-high five rebounds
Another 6-0 burst helped the Huskie lead grow to double digits. Williams opened the run with a basket,
Chinedu Kingsley Okanu (Lynwood, Ill./Vincennes University) and
Zool Kueth (Gallatin, Tenn./Pratt CC) both added a pair as NIU went in front 19-9 with 13:03 to play in the first half.
Eastern Michigan used a 13-1 run to move back in front, 25-24, with just under eight minutes left before halftime. The Eagles run reached 22-1 as Eastern Michigan led 34-24 before five-straight points from
Darweshi Hunter (Cincinnati, Ohio/Weber State) cut the EMU lead in half with 3:50 to play in the opening stanza.
EMU took a 40-34 lead into halftime. Noah Farrakhan scored 23 points in the opening 20 minutes, going 8-of-8 from the field as the Eagles shot 59.1 percent (13-of-22) as a team in the first half, including 50 percent (5-of-10) from three-point range. NIU was led by eight points from
Kaleb Thornton.
The Eagles lead ballooned to 11 early in the second half but a pair of triples from Hankerson helped bring the Huskies back within seven, 51-44.
After the Eagles increased their lead to 11, NIU used an 8-1 run to pull within four with just under 12 minutes to go. Williams made four-straight free throws and added a field goal before Makuoi cleaned up an offensive rebound with a dunk to trim the EMU advantage to 58-54.
The Huskie run reached 12-1 as Makuoi made another bucket and Williams added two more from the line to tie the game at 58 with 9:57 to play.
With the game tied at 60, Eastern Michigan used an 11-2 run to take a 71-62 lead with a little more than four minutes remaining.
NIU answered right back with the next nine to tie the game at 71. Williams scored the first five before Hunter made a pair of free throws to get the Huskies within a pair. Thornton then scored off the window to pull NIU even with 2:03 left.
The Huskies made it 10-straight points when Williams made a free throw with 1:18 remaining to give the Huskies a 72-71 lead.
Eastern Michigan broke the NIU scoring run with a basket to move back in front by one with just under a minute to play. On the following NIU possession, the Huskies came up empty and the Eagles escaped with the victory.
Farrakhan finished with 31 points to lead the way for Eastern Michigan, Mo Njie added 16 points as the Eagles shot 58.7 percent (27-of-46) from the field in the contest.
NIU will return home to host Buffalo in a makeup contest on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. The Buffalo game is a rescheduled contest from Jan. 4, tickets for the original date will be honored at Thursday's game. Tickets for all remaining Huskie basketball home games are available online at NIUHuskies.com/MyHuskies or by calling the NIU Athletics Ticket Office at 815-753-PACK (7225).
