Central Michigan scored the first seven points of the second overtime as the Chippewas outlasted the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team, 84-77, in double overtime on Tuesday night (Jan. 30) at McGuirk Arena.

Xavier Amos (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) led the way for the Huskies with 25 points, Zarique Nutter (Newark, N.J./Clarendon College) added a career-best 23 points while David Coit (Columbus, N.J./Atlantic Cape CC) chipped in 15 points. Harvin Ibarguen (Cali, Colombia/Seward County CC) grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds for NIU.

Central Michigan went 14-of-21 (66.7 percent) from the free-throw line in the two overtime periods combined, NIU was 6-of-8 (75 percent) from the line during the overtime sessions.

“We played hard,” said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. “(David) Coit didn’t have his best game in terms of shooting percentage, but we played hard. You have to make plays and we had some free throws down the stretch that we could have made, but we didn’t. It wasn’t all bad, but this is what happens when you are not winning.”

Tied at 61 with 36.1 seconds left in regulation, the Chippewas went in front by a pair as Markus Harding made a basket. On the following possession, Nutter finished through contact to tie the game at 63 and force overtime.

In the first extra period, Central Michigan led 70-67 before a corner triple from Zion Russell (Upper Marlboro, Md./National Christian Academy) evened the game with just under two minutes left. Both teams were then held scoreless until Paul McMillan went to the free-throw line with 1.8 seconds to play for CMU and made a pair of free throws to put the Chippewas in front.

Russell finished with eight points, five rebounds and three assists for the Huskies.

NIU (6-14, 0-8 MAC) threw the ball the length of the floor and Yanic Konan Niederhauser (Fraschels, Switzerland/Ursping) was fouled with 1.5 seconds remaining. Konan Niederhauser calmly made both free throws to send the game to a second overtime period.

Central Michigan scored the first seven in the second overtime and never looked back.

McMillan finished with 21 points for the Chippewas, Harding had 18 points, Anthony Pritchard scored 16, Brian Taylor finished with 13 points and Derrick Butler chipped in 10 points for CMU.

NIU jumped out to a 9-2 start to open the contest as Amos scored four points and Konan Niederhauser gave the Huskies a seven-point lead with a jump hook in the lane.

Central Michigan (12-9, 7-2 MAC)  took its first lead, 10-9, but Nutter answered with six-straight for the Huskies, giving NIU a 15-10 lead with just over 12 minutes to play in the first half, forcing a Chippewa timeout. After the timeout, Nutter added another bucket as the Huskie lead grew to seven.

Amos made a pair of free throws to give the Huskies a nine-point lead, 21-12, just past the midway point of the opening stanza.

Central Michigan trimmed the NIU lead to just four, 23-19, before back-to-back buckets from Nutter doubled the advantage to eight, 27-19, with 5:52 left in the half. The baskets by Nutter ignited an 8-2 run for the Huskies as NIU led 31-21 with just under four minutes to play before the break.

The NIU lead was still 10 until Central Michigan scored the final four points of the half to trim the Huskie advantage to 36-30 at the break. Nutter led all scorers with 15 points in the opening 20 minutes, Amos added 12 for NIU while Pritchard had eight to pace Central Michigan. NIU shot 51.9 percent (14-of-27) from the field in the first half.

A pair of triples from Amos and a three by Russell helped NIU push its lead to 45-34 inside the opening five minutes of the second half.

Coit knocked in NIU’s fourth triple of the second half with just over 12 minutes to play as the Huskies led 50-37.

Central Michigan responded with a 13-2 run to pull within a pair, 52-50, with 7:28 left to play.

The hosts took their first lead of the second half, 56-55, on a pair of free throws by Pritchard with 4:10 left. Pritchard then got a steal and went coast-to-coast for a dunk to give Central Michigan a three-point lead.

CMU went in front by as much as five, but a 6-1 Huskie run, capped by a layup from Amos off an offensive rebound, evened the game at 61 with 36.1 seconds remaining.

NIU and Central Michigan had nearly identical shooting percentages from the field in the contest, with the Huskies going 27-of-66 (40.9 percent) from the floor, including 7-of-26 (26.9 percent) from three, while CMU was 26-of-65 (40 percent) and 6-of-21 (28.6 percent) from three-point range. The Chippewas were 26-of-37 (70.3 percent) from the free-throw line however, compared to 16-of-25 (64 percent) for NIU.

The Huskies return home on Saturday, Feb. 3, when they host Eastern Michigan at 3 p.m. Tickets for Saturday’s contest, including the 2024 Pack which features four tickets, four hot dogs, four sodas and four chips for just $40, are available now at NIUHuskies.com/tickets. The 2024 Pack is available by using the promo code 2024PACK.