By Woodrow Carroll –
After opening Mid-American Conference (MAC) play early in January with two road victories, the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team appeared to be headed in the right direction. Long troubled by road games in the MAC, victories at Ohio and Miami Ohio were a sign of good things for the Huskies. Turns out, however, that early-season success was misleading.
In Pack-the-Place Saturday in DeKalb, and, a season-high crowd of 2,869 in attendance, the Northern Illinois men’s and women’s games offered optimism. The women did their part with a narrow victory over Toledo, 54-52, to improve to 15-9 overall and 7-5 in the MAC.
The Northern Illinois men faltered badly in an 87-67 loss to Bowling Green.
The defeat administered to Northern Illinois by the Falcons Saturday was the Huskies’ eighth in the 10 games. Northern Illinois went from a 3-0 record to 5-8 in the MAC and 12-14 overall.
The loss to Bowling Green was the fourth home defeat in the MAC for Northern Illinois this season. Overall, Northern Illinois has dropped five straight games with three of those losses at the NIU Convocation Center.
Levi Bradley led Northern Illinois in scoring with 18 points and in rebounds with six. Bowling Green outrebounded the Huskies, 36-25.
In addition to the final score, the stat that stood out was Bowling Green’s three-point shooting. The Falcons were 12 for 21 from long range and the Huskies finished four for 17.
Five games remain on the regular-season schedule for Northern Illinois. Next will be at Toledo at 5 p.m. Saturday.