Rashon Burno
DEKALB, Ill. – Makhai Valentine tied his career-high with 27 points as the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team held on to top UMass, 70-68, on Saturday afternoon at the NIU Convocation Center. Hassan ‘Tre’ Washington added 11 points while Gianni Cobb had eight points, six assists and six steals.
“It was a really good game,” said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. “The energy in the building was phenomenal … the energy was phenomenal for the guys down the stretch.”
NIU (6-11, 2-4 MAC) led for more than 30 minutes but found itself trailing by two, 66-64, inside the final four minutes of the contest. Two free throws from both Gustav Winther (Roskilde, Denmark) and Dylan Ducommun put the Huskies back in front, 68-66, with 3:16 left.
The visitors then went to the free-throw line on back-to-back possessions but made just 1-of-4 free throws as NIU led by one with two minutes to play. After both teams had empty trips, Taj Walters split a pair at the line, giving NIU a 69-67 lead with 30 seconds to play.
UMass (11-8, 2-5 MAC) came up empty again and Cobb went to the line with 18 seconds left. He split a pair as the Huskie lead grew to 70-67. On the next possession, UMass turned down a look at a three and Jayden Ndjigue was fouled at the rim with 5.5 seconds to play.
Ndjigue made his first free throw, missed the second and the rebound was tapped around by other teams until the horn sounded as NIU survived for the victory.
Leonardo Bettilo led the way for UMass with 25 points, Marcus Banks added 16 and K’Jei Parker chipped in 15 points.
Tied at 10 a little over five minutes into the contest, Daemar Kelly knocked down a triple from the wing to put the Huskies in front by three. Cobb added a free throw as the Huskies took a 14-10 lead with 14:04 to play in the opening half.
Leading by a pair, 23-21, Washington had back-to-back layups to push the NIU advantage to a half-dozen, 27-21, with 5:40 left before the intermission.
Valentine extended the NIU run to 7-0 with three free throws, giving the Huskies a 30-21 lead with 4:48 remaining in the opening stanza.
A Valentine triple started a 5-0 burst for the Huskies as NIU went in front by a dozen, 38-26, on a pair of free throws from Walters with 1:43 to play in the half.
UMass answered with the next five however and the visitors trimmed the gap to seven, 40-33, at the break. Valentine had 13 points in the opening 20 minutes for NIU while COBB had six assists and three steals. Banks led the Minutemen with 11 points.
The Minutemen scored first to open the second half, cutting the NIU lead to five.
NIU’s lead was eight, 45-37, after a triple from Valentine, but UMass then went on a 7-0 run to cut the Huskie advantage to just one, 45-44, with 14:59 to play. The Huskies led by three before a UMass triple evened the game at 50 with 12:17 remaining.
The visitors took their first lead of the second half, 54-52, with 9:29 to play, but NIU responded with the next six. Winther opened the run with a dunk, Cobb made a pair of free throws and Valentine had an explosive tip-dunk to give NIU a 58-54 lead with just over eight minutes left.
Out of a timeout, the NIU run extended to 8-0 as Valentine got a steal and a layup, giving the Huskies a 60-54 advantage. UMass answered with the next six to even the contest at 60 with 5:30 left.
NIU forced 18 turnovers in the contest, converting them into 24 points, while UMass scored just eight points off 14 NIU miscues.
The Huskies will go on the road for the next two, traveling to Ohio (Jan. 20) and Ball State (Jan. 24) before returning home to host Western Michigan on Tuesday, Jan. 27.