DeKALB, IL – Sophomore forward Yanic Konan Niederhauser (Fraschels, Switzerland/Ursping) led four Huskies in double-figure scoring Wednesday night as the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team defeated the Illinois Wesleyan Titans 81-64 in exhibition action at the NIU Convocation Center.
 
"Our guys were pressing a bit, playing their first game at home," said head coach Rashon Burno. "Our athleticism and size wore Illinois Wesleyan down. Nine of their 19 makes were threes so we have to do a better job defending the three-point line."
 
Niederhauser led all scorers with 16 points, adding six rebounds and two blocks. Xavier Amos (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) and Philmon Gebrewhit (Boston, Mass./DePaul) each had 14 points, with Amos leading all players with nine rebounds and four blocked shots. Zion Russell (Upper Marlboro, Md./National Christian Academy) added 11 points and three assists.
 
"Yanic was good tonight," said Burno. "He's got to be better at the free throw line and I think he can be a better rebounder. He had six boards in 25 minutes. We'll get him better but he played really well for us tonight."
 
NIU used a 10-0 run early in the first half to take a 12-3 lead with 16:59 remaining as threes from Amos and Gebrewhit staked the Huskies to a nine-point advantage. Amos scored 10 points in the first 5:20 of the game, putting NIU up 18-9 with a layup at the 14:40 mark. NIU took its largest lead of the half with 2:24 to go when Niederhauser found Gebrewhit for an open three to make the score 40-27. NIU held Illinois Wesleyan under 30 percent from the field to take a 43-32 halftime lead.
 
Illinois Wesleyan came out of the locker room hot to start the second half. Behind back-to-back Trey Bazzell threes, the Titans scored the first eight points to get within three 43-40 with 18:35 to go in the game. With the score 52-49 at the 13:40 mark, Russell put in a layup to start a quick 6-1 run over 2:17 that put the Huskies up eight, 58-50. NIU put the game away midway through the second half. The Huskies went on a 12-0 run over 5:02 to take a 74-54 lead with just over four minutes to play. Russell scored five points in that stretch with Niederhauser putting the exclamation point on the run with a dunk from Gebrewhit.
 
NIU finished the game shooting 44.6 percent from the field and making 23 of 34 free throw attempts. Illinois Wesleyan shot 31.7 percent for the game and made 9-of-27 three-point attempts. The Huskies outscored the Titans 34-12 in the paint and held a 46-34 edge on the glass.
 
"At the end of the day, our guys have been working against each other for the last three, four months," Burno said. "We were tight and tense and that showed in some of our play. We'll watch the film and get better and obviously we have a juggernaut on Monday."
 
The Huskies open the 2023-24 season on Monday, Nov. 6 against the #5/7 Marquette Golden Eagles at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m. with the game telecast on FS1 and the Fox Sports App.
 
--NIU--