Men's Basketball Falls 83-74 at Northern Illinois

January 27 | Men's Basketball

DEKALB, Ill. -

The University of Akron men's basketball team fell 83-74 to the Northern Illinois Huskies Wednesday night at the Convocation Center.

Nikola Cvetinovic led the Zips with his fourth double-double of the season (fifth career), scoring 20 points and grabbing 10 boards. Brett McClanahan added 15 points while Steve McNees, Brett McKnight and Darryl Roberts added 10 points each.

For the game, the Zips (11-9, 2-4 MAC) shot 41.8 percent from the floor (28-for-67) and 40.0 percent from long range (12-for-30). NIU (7-11, 3-3 MAC) closed the contest shooting 44.4 percent (24-for-54), including 31.6 percent from 3-point range (6-for-19).

NIU's Xavier Silas led all scorers with 39 points.

Akron would trail 79-72 with 33.2 second to go in the game, but would not be able to overcome the deficit.

The Huskies would answer and extend their lead to 65-53 at the 8:06 mark. After trailing by 15 (69-54) with 6:48 to go, the Zips hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to make the score 69-60 in favor of the Huskies with 5:33 on the clock.

The Zips had a slow start to the second half, turning the ball over twice in the first 4:45 and trailed 52-37 with 15:15 to go in the game. That deficit grew to 19 (56-37) at the 14:20 mark before a 14-2 run cut NIU's advantage to 58-51 with 11:10 to go in the contest.

Both teams opened the game shooting well from the field, posting identical 5-for-11 performances (.455) over the first 6:15. NIU's two free throws were the difference, as the Huskies would lead 14-12 with 13:44 to go in the first half.

The Akron deficit grew to as many as 13 points (35-22) with 6:23 left in the first half before the Zips cut the Huskies' lead to 35-30 at the 3:42 mark thanks to an 8-0 run. Neither team would make much headway from that point and go to the intermission with NIU leading 39-32.

Akron closed the half shooting 44.8 percent (13-for-29), including 40.0 percent from long range (4-for-10). NIU shot 48.4 percent from the floor (15-for-31) and shot 38.5 percent from beyond the arc (5-for-13). The Huskies held a 19-14 rebounding advantage while both teams combined for just five turnovers, two by the Zips.

Cvetinovic led the Zips with 10 points and five boards in the half. McClanahan added six points.

The Zips return home to play host to Central Michigan at Rhodes Arena on Sunday, Jan. 30. The game will air live on ESPNU beginning at 6 p.m. ET and will include various activities honoring U.S. servicemen and servicewomen.

Zips Notebook: Tonight's contest is Akron's second-consecutive game on SportsTime Ohio and the middle game of three-straight contests on television ... senior guard Steve McNees passed Mike Dowdell (1984-87) for ninth place on the career assists list (263) ... sophomore center Zeke Marshall recorded his 30th multi-block game of his career (15th this season).