Huskies unable to muster win in Patton’s home state

A young NIU men’s basketball team suffered a few growing pains over the weekend.

The Huskies dropped a 75-73 decision at Tennessee State Friday evening in a game that saw a combined 25 ties and lead changes. Freshman Mike DiNunno led NIU in scoring for the forth consecutive time, dropping 15 points.

Sophomores Darion “Jake” Anderson and Jeremy Landers scored in double-figures as well, adding
12 and 10 points respectively. The Huskies (2-2) shot a season-low 37 percent from the field in the loss, but improved their free-throw shooting, hitting 81 percent of their foul shots.

The Tigers’ Jerrell Houston finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds to go along with three blocks and three steals. Parker Smith held the Huskies at bay with his 14 points by nailing three-of-five of his 3-point attempts.

Tennessee State (1-2) held a 10-3 lead in the opening moments of the game, but NIU battled back to take its first lead, 17-15. The score volleyed back and forth until the Huskies went into the locker room trailing 40-39.

“It was a physical game and we did all right by staying with them,” said freshman Tyler Storm.
“Late in the game we had too many mistakes. Limit those mistakes and we had it won.”

The game went down to the wire with the score tied at 73 with 13 seconds left. Houston scored with five seconds remaining to give the Tigers a two-point advantage.

NIU regained possession after the Tigers knocked the ball out of bounds with 1.9 seconds remaining.

Following an NIU timeout, Anderson’s potential game-winning 3-pointer failed.

“Being a close loss, you just wish you could have that one back,” Storm said. “But it helps us for down the road when we have another close game. We’ll know what to do to get the win.”

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