Men's basketball's losing streak hits five in overtime loss to NIU


devontae-lane-vs-akron
Central Michigan guard Devontae Lane (2) drives to the basket against Akron's Loren Cristian Jackson (1). The Chippewas and Zips squared off Friday night in McGuirk Arena.

After a double-digit win over Bowling Green at McGuirk Arena on Feb. 4, Central Michigan sat in first place in the Mid-American Conference. Five games later, the Chippewas have dropped to third in the West Division. 

Northern Illinois made three consecutive free throws down the stretch and the Huskies (16-11, 9-5) handed the Chippewas (13-13, 6-7) their fifth-straight loss, 82-81, on Saturday at the NIU Convocation Center in DeKalb, Illinois. 

Central Michigan scored the first six points of the game on the strength of baskets from senior guard Kevin McKay, junior guard Deschon Winston and senior forward David DiLeo. Northern Illinois scored the next six and the back-and-forth contest began. 

Senior guard Dallas Morgan, who came off the bench for the third consecutive game, hit a 3-pointer to put the Chippewas up 27-25 with 2:54 remaining in the first half. His triple was Central Michigan's last bucket of the half, as the Huskies close the half on a 7-0 run to lead 32-27 heading into the break. 

Northern Illinois pushed its lead to nine out of the halftime break, however DiLeo answered with six-straight to cut the lead to just three. Trendon Hankerson pushed the Huskie lead back to eight with a triple and Zaire Mateen hit one of his own to stretch it to 10 minutes later after a mini Chippewa spurt. 

Back-to-back jumpers from junior guard Devontae Lane, who returned to the starting lineup after playing the last two games off the bench, brought the Chippewas back to within three. After an NIU timeout, Hankerson drilled another triple to push the lead back to six.

The Chippewas continued to tighten the game up, only to have the Huskies net clutch buckets to push the deficit further. However, a 16-2 run, capped off by a Lane jumper, gave CMU its first lead of the second half. McKay scored later to keep the lead at three with under a minute-and-a-half to play. 

Leading by four with under a minute to play, the Chippewas committed turnovers on back-to-back possessions and Huskie star Eugene German scored back to back layups to tie the game with six seconds to go. Lane missed a jumper and DiLeo missed the put back to send the game into overtime. 

The two teams went back and forth in overtime. Central Michigan scored its last bucket with a Rob Montgomery jumper with 1:30 to play. Both offenses slowed after that, with the Huskies scoring the last four points of the game on free throws to secure the win. DiLeo missed a triple and McKay's put back at the buzzer wasn't enough for the Chippewas. 

DiLeo scored a game-high 25 points while Lane added 14. Montgomery had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds and Morgan went for 10 off the bench. 

German led the Huskies with 23 points while Darius Beane added 15. 

The Chippewas next take the court at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Toledo in McGuirk Arena. 

Share: