DEKALB, Ill. – Darweshi Hunter (Cincinnati, Ohio) scored a career-best 22 points and Kaleb Thornton (Bolingbrook, Ill.) netted a career-high 21, along with seven assists, five rebounds and four steals, but the Northern Illinois University men's basketball fell to Toledo, 84-67, on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 14) at the NIU Convocation Center. 

"Disappointing first half," said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. "Twelve turnovers really put us in harm's way. We told our guys going into the game, especially against Toledo who is one of the most efficient teams in the country, you can't spot them any opportunities, and you have to run really good offense, manage the game and make shots. We knew we couldn't get into a scoring contest with them, they are talented one through five and they are capable of scoring in bunches."

Toledo converted 16 Huskie turnovers into 19 points while NIU scored just six points off 12 Rocket miscues. The visitors also went 28-of-38 (73.7 percent) from the free-throw line while the Huskies were 15-of-24 (62.5 percent). 

A 7-0 Toledo burst early in the contest gave the Rockets a 9-5 edge before a short jumper from Zarique Nutter (Newark, N.J.) trimmed the Toledo lead back to just a pair with 16:20 to play in the opening half. 

Nutter finished with seven points and five rebounds. 

The Rockets led by a half-dozen until a triple from Hunter cut the Toledo lead in half, 17-14, with just over 11 minutes to play in the opening stanza. Toledo then used a 17-0 run to take a 34-14 lead with a little more than five minutes left in the first half. 

The Toledo lead grew to as large as 22 before NIU used an 8-2 burst to cut the Rocket advantage to 39-23 with 1:04 to play in the half. Oluwasegun Durosinmi (Lagos, Nigeria) scored the first three on the spurt, Hunter added a pair of free throws and Thornton knocked in his second triple of the half. 

Toledo made a baseline jumper at the buzzer to take a 41-23 lead into halftime. Thornton paced the Huskies with seven first half points, Dante Maddox Jr. had 14 to lead the Rockets, who shot 50 percent (15-of-30) from the field in the opening 20 minutes. 

A triple by Thornton, his third of the half and fifth of the night, helped cut the Toledo lead to 50-37 with 15:15 remaining, but the Rockets responded with a 9-3 burst as their lead grew to 59-40 with just under 12 minutes to play. 

Four Rockets scored in double figures, led by 18 points from Maddox. RayJ Dennis, Setric Millner Jr. and JT Shumate each added 15 points for Toledo. 

NIU will return to action on Tuesday night, Jan. 17, when they travel to Miami. Game time in Oxford, Ohio, is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.