A 21-5 run to close the first half and begin the second helped Bowling Green claim an 83-72 victory over the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 13) at the NIU Convocation Center. David Coit (Columbus, N.J./Atlantic Cape CC) scored a game-high 27 points to lead the Huskies, Xavier Amos (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) added 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds while Nasir Muhammad (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xavierian) chipped in a career-best 12 points.
“The last four minutes of the first half was the difference in the separation,” said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. “Yet again we had no resistance at the rim, but we have dug ourselves a deep hole in conference (play) because we haven’t put two halves together. Today it was the first half, the last 4-6 minutes of the half, and the second half we played even.”
Bowling Green (12-4, 3-1 MAC) had a 13-6 lead in the early going before the Huskies used an 11-4 burst to even the contest at 17 with 11:11 to play in the first half. Coit ignited the burst with an old-fashioned three-point play, Ethan Butler (Toronto, Ontario/Oregon) added a pair of free throws during the run with Amos and Quaran McPherson (Queens, N.Y./Nebraska) connected on back-to-back trifectas to tie the game at 17.
After the Falcons went back in front by a pair, Muhammad scored five quick points to give the Huskies a 24-21 advantage with 8:52 to play in the opening half.
Bowling Green went nearly five minutes without a field goal, but the Falcons made eight free throws during that stretch as the Falcons built a 31-26 lead with 4:39 remaining before the break.
NIU (6-10, 0-4 MAC) was back within a pair, 31-29, following an old-fashioned three-point play from Coit.
Bowling Green closed the half on a 12-3 run as the Falcons took a 43-32 lead into the intermission. Marcus Hill led the Falcons with 14 points, Rashaun Agee added 11, as Bowling Green shot 53.8 percent (14-of-26) in the opening half and went 13-of-19 (68.4 percent) from the free-throw line. Coit had 10 points to pace NIU in the first half.
Amos scored the opening basket of the second stanza, but Bowling Green responded with the next nine points as the Falcons led 52-34 with 16:52 to play.
A 9-2 burst by the Huskies brought NIU back within a dozen, 62-50, with 10:30 left to play. Coit made a pair of baskets during the spurt, which was capped by a triple from Amos.
After NIU got within 10 on three-point play from Amos, the Falcons scored the next five to push their lead to 71-56 with 7:35 to go.
An 11-4 run by the Huskies got NIU within eight as Muhammad knocked in his second triple of the day, trimming the Bowling Green advantage to 75-67 with 4:12 left, but that is as close as the Huskies would get as Bowling Green went 7-of-8 from the free-throw line down the stretch to steal the victory.
Agee finished with 24 points and nine rebounds for Bowling Green. Hill scored 20 points, Da’Shawn Phillip added 12 points while Jason Spurgin had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Falcons.
NIU will be back in action on Tuesday night, Jan. 16, when the Huskies host Kent State at 7 p.m. in the NIU Convocation Center. Tickets for Tuesday’s contest, and all remaining Huskie basketball games, are available at NIUHuskies.com/tickets.