Xavier Amos (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) scored a game-high 25 points while Zarique Nutter (Newark, N.J./Clarendon College) recorded his second-straight double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds as the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team scored a 72-68 win over Buffalo on Tuesday night (Feb. 13) at the NIU Convocation Center.

The Huskies and Bulls traded 14 leads and were tied six times as NIU took the lead for good with 4:23 remaining as part of an 8-3 burst, leading to the Huskies’ third consecutive win in conference play.

“It was a gritty win,” said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. “It wasn’t pretty at times, but it was a collective group who played with a purpose for 40 minutes, similar to what we did against Eastern (Michigan). We didn’t quite play well in the first half from a statistical standpoint, but the effort was there.

“Will Lovings-Watts had some big plays, (Xavier Amos) was (Xavier Amos) today, (Zarique) Nutter really helped us on the glass with 12 (rebounds).”

NIU (9-15, 3-8 MAC) trailed by a pair, 55-53, before Zion Russell (Upper Marlboro, Md./National Christian Academy) found Will Lovings-Watts (Jeffersonville, Ind./Putnam Science) for a corner triple to give the Huskies a one-point lead with 5:52 to play. Russell then added a bucket before Buffalo tied the game at 58 with a triple.

A free throw by Nutter and a dunk from Lovings-Watts gave the lead back to the Huskies, 61-58, with four minutes remaining.

Lovings-Watts finished with 12 points and a career-best eight rebounds. Russell had eight points and zero turnovers in 39 minutes.

The Huskie lead was just a pair, 64-62, until a finish at the rim by Amos with just under two minutes left. A Buffalo free throw got the Bulls within a point but on the next possession, NIU fed Amos on the right block, and he scored again, giving NIU a 68-63 lead with 1:22 left.

Buffalo (3-21, 1-10 MAC) missed three free throws in the next minute as the Bulls would get within three, 71-68, but no closer as NIU closed out the home win.

NIU shot 54.5 percent (12-of-22) from the field in the second half, including 57.1 percent (4-of-7) from three.

Sy Chatman had 18 points to lead Buffalo, Shawn Fulcher added 13 points and Jonnivius Smith chipped in 12 points for the Bulls.

A triple by Amos, his second of the half, gave NIU a 13-8 lead with 12:44 to play in the opening stanza. Buffalo answered with seven of the next nine however as the Bulls pulled even just before the midway point of the opening 20 minutes.

Ethan Butler (Toronto, Ontario/Oregon) and Lovings-Watts scored to push the Huskies back in front by four, but Buffalo scored the next five as the Bulls took their first lead of the game, 20-19, with eight minutes left before the intermission.

A pair of free throws by Amos and a triple from Nutter gave NIU a 27-23 advantage. The Bulls clawed back to even at 31 with just over a minute to play in the half and Buffalo took a three-point lead in the break, 34-31, as Lloyd McVeigh hit a triple to close the scoring.

Amos led all scorers with 12 points in the opening half Nutter added nine points and eight rebounds while Smith led Buffalo with eight points. The Bulls shot 48.1 percent (13-of-27) to just 36.4 percent (12-of-33) shooting by the Huskies, but NIU had nine offensive rebounds and held an 11-0 edge in second chance points.

The lead swung back-and-forth early in the second half before a triple from Russell, followed by an old-fashioned three-point play from Nutter, gave the Huskies a 50-45 lead with 12:08 left to play.

Amos added three free throws as the NIU lead grew to 53-45 before Buffalo scored eight-straight to pull back even, 53-53, with 8:20 remaining.

NIU heads on the road on Saturday, Feb. 17, as the Huskies travel to Kent State. Game time against the Golden Flashes is slated for 1 p.m. CT.