David Coit (Columbus, N.J./Atlantic Cape CC) netted a career-high 35 points as the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team came up just short in its upset bid of first-place Akron on Saturday night (March 2), falling to the Zips, 80-73, at Rhodes Arena. Will Lovings-Watts (Jeffersonville, Ind./Putnam Science) added 14 points and Ethan Butler (Toronto, Ontario/Oregon) scored 11 for NIU.

With his career-high 35 points, Coit becomes the 33rd player in NIU men’s basketball history to reach 1,000 career points. He is just the fourth to do so in two seasons, joining Kenny Battle (1984-86), Jim Bradley (1971-73) and Xavier Silas (2009-11).

Akron outrebounded NIU 41-31 in the contest, including 14-8 on the offensive end, converting those offensive rebounds into a 22-6 edge in second chance points. The Zips bench outscored the shorthanded Huskie reserves, 23-2.

A basket by Butler ignited a 12-2 run for the Huskies as NIU took a seven-point lead with 12:42 to play in the opening half. Coit and Lovings-Watts each knocked in a triple during the run, Akron then scored a basket which was followed by a free throw from Lovings-Watts and another trifecta by Coit as the Huskies took a 15-8 lead.

The NIU (10-19, 4-12 MAC) lead grew to nine, 17-8, as a bucket from Coit extended the Huskie run to 14-2 with just under 11 minutes left in the half.

Akron (21-8, 13-3 MAC) scored seven of the next nine to cut the NIU advantage back to just four, 19-15. The Zips evened the contest at 23 before four-straight NIU free throws, two from COIT and two from Lovings-Watts, gave the Huskies a 27-23 lead.

In front by just a pair, Lovings-Watts scored five-straight points to push the NIU lead to 32-25 with a little more than four minutes to play in the opening half.

Akron used a six-point burst to pull back within one, 32-31, but Coit scored the next five as NIU took a 37-31 lead with 1:24 to play in the half. Akron closed the opening stanza with a triple to cut the Huskie advantage to three, 37-34, at the half.

Coit led all scorers with 16 points in the opening 20 minutes, Lovings-Watts added 11 while Enrique Freeman paced the Zips in the first half with nine points. NIU shot 46.2 percent (12-of-26) in the opening period, including 42.9 percent (6-of-14) from three, while holding Akron to just 38.7 percent (12-of-31) and 27.8 percent (5-of-18) from three.

Akron opened the second half on a 14-5 run as the Zips went in front by a half-dozen, 48-42, with 13:28 remaining.

Back-to-back triples from Coit brought the Huskies back within a pair, 55-53, just past the midway point of the second half.

Akron responded with eight-straight points as the Zips extended their lead to 63-53 with 7:50 left.

Trailing by a dozen, NIU rallied with eight-straight points to trim the Zips lead to 75-71. Yanic Konan Niederhauser (Fraschels, Switzerland/Ursping) opened the run with a triple, Harvin Ibarguen (Cali, Colombia/Seward County CC) added a basket, Lovings-Watt scored and Coit made a free throw to bring the Huskies within four with less than a minute remaining.

The Zips held off any chance of a late Huskie comeback by going 5-of-6 from the free-throw line in the final 20 seconds. Freeman finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead Akron; Ali Ali added 17 points for the Zips.

NIU will return home on Tuesday night, March 5, for the final home game of the season as the Huskies host Central Michigan. Tipoff against the Chippewas is scheduled for 7 p.m. and tickets are available now at NIUHuskies.com/tickets.