Entering last week, the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team had little hope of finishing the regular season on a positive note. Road games with Central Michigan and Ball State, two teams which had knocked off the Huskies in DeKalb earlier in the season, were on tap.
In what was a mild surprise, Northern Illinois defeated both Central Michigan and Ball State. Thus, Northern Illinois was host team in Monday’s Mid-American Conference (MAC) Tournament this week. The Northern Illinois women played in an earlier game Monday and defeated Western Michigan, 70-69.
Northern Illinois, by virtue of its strong finish, earned the No. 7 seed and was host to No. 10 Ohio Monday.
The Northern Illinois men raced out to a 16-point halftime advantage against Ohio and coasted home to a 80-61 victory, for a 16-16 record to set up a quarterfinal game with No. 2 Toledo at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 14 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
Eugene German, with 23 points, Dante Thorp with 18, and Lacey James with 14, led Northern Illinois in scoring.
Northern Illinois women, seeded No. 7, survived a last-second scare to beat Western Michigan. Western Michigan’s Leighah Amori-Wool missed two free throws at the buzzer that could have tied the score or won the game for the visiting Broncos.
Myia Starks scored 20 points to lead the way for Northern Illinois. Mikayla Voigt of the Huskies, with a 20.1 scoring average, was limited to six points. The victory propelled the Northern Illinois, 19-12, into Wednesday’s MAC Tournament quarterfinal in Cleveland against Ohio.
• Bradley University ensured Illinois would have a team in the NCAA men’s tournament field.
With a surprising run in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament which culminated in a 57-54 comeback victory over Northern Iowa in the championship game, the Bradley Braves qualified for the 68-team field.
Bradley, seeded No. 5 among the Conference’s 10 teams, took the measure of Missouri State, top seeded, and 2018 champion Loyola in the semifinals, then Northern Iowa in the championship game to win to the conference tournament championship.