CHICAGO – A career-high 34 points from David Coit (Columbus, N.J./Atlantic Cape CC) and a 19-0 run wrapped around the end of the first half and the beginning of the second helped lead the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team to an 89-79 victory over DePaul on Saturday night (Nov. 25) at Wintrust Arena. 

Coit's big night included a career-best eight triples, which ties a school record set on March 5, 1990, by Donald Whiteside against Wright State, as he collected the Jay Goedart Memorial MVP Award. Zarique Nutter (Newark, N.J./Clarendon College) added 19 points and seven rebounds while Xavier Amos (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) scored 12 points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. 

"We are inching closer," said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. "We led for 39:13 in this game, we are getting better, we just have to stay humble and stay focused on what got us here. I'm super excited for these guys to come here and play well. This is big for so many different reasons, recruiting, and making sure that people know we are on the uptick."

The Huskies did not trail in the contest as they recorded their first victory over DePaul since 2005, snapping a four-game losing streak in the series. NIU improved to 5-1 with the win, its best start to a season since going 7-0 to start the 2015-16 campaign.

Coit made his first four triple tries early on as the Huskies led, 19-10, inside the opening six minutes of the contest. 

With NIU in front by nine, DePaul used a 10-3 run to pull within a pair, 24-22, just past the midway point of the half, forcing a Huskie timeout. 

DePaul (1-5) pulled even at 26 before an alley-oop to Amos and a pair of free throws by Nutter put the Huskies back in front, 30-26, with 6:31 left in the half. 

NIU's lead was three before back-to-back buckets by Nutter and Philmon Gebrewhit (Boston, Mass./DePaul) pushed the Huskie advantage to seven, 36-29, with a little over four minutes to play before the intermission. 

Gebrewhit finished with nine points and a team-high four assists. 

The Huskies closed the first half on a 7-0 run as Coit made a floater, Oluwasegun Durosinmi (Lagos, Nigeria/St. Bonaventure) added a free throw, Ethan Butler (Toronto, Ontario/Oregon) had a put-back dunk and Nutter just beat the buzzer after a steal, giving NIU a 43-31 lead at the break. 

Coit led all scorers with 14 points in the opening 20 minutes, Nutter added a dozen as NIU shot 50 percent (17-of-34) from the field in the first half, including 42 percent (5-of-12) from three-point range. NIU held DePaul to just 37 percent (11-of-30) shooting in the opening stanza. 

NIU opened the second half on a 7-0 run as Yanic Konan Niederhauser (Fraschels, Switzerland/Ursping) converted an old-fashioned three-point play, followed by baskets from Nutter and Coit, as the Huskies led 50-31 and forced a DePaul timeout just 69 seconds into the second half. 

Konan Niederhauser had nine points, seven rebounds and four blocks in the contest as he was limited to just 15 minutes due to foul trouble. 

The Huskie run reached 12-0 to start the half, and 19-0 wrapped around to the first half, as Coit knocked in a triple and Konan Niederhauser added a pair from the line, giving NIU a 55-31 lead with 17:35 to go. 

A 12-5 spurt by DePaul brought the Blue Demons within 13, 65-52, with 12:40 left before a short jumper from Coit pushed the Huskie advantage back to 15. 

DePaul scored the next six, followed by three-straight from the free-throw line by the Huskies as the NIU lead was 70-58 with eight minutes left. 

A 6-0 Huskie burst gave NIU a 76-62 lead as Nutter and Will Lovings-Watts (Jeffersonville, Ind./Putnam Science) made buckets, sandwiched around a pair of free throws from Konan Niederhauser. After the Blue Demons trimmed the lead back to 10, Coit knocked in his seventh triple of the night to give NIU a 79-66 lead with 3:24 to play. 

Da'Sean Nelson scored a team-high 23 points to lead DePaul. Elijah Fisher added 16, K.T. Raimey had 11 and Jeremiah Oden scored 10 points. 

NIU will be back in action on Monday night, Nov. 27, when the Huskies travel to Evanston to take on Northwestern. Game time against the Wildcats is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be available on Big Ten Network Plus ($).