DeKALB – Less than a week after the Harlem Globetrotters left the Convocation Center, NIU men’s basketball senior guard Kaleb Thornton did his best on-court Globetrotter impersonation as he scored his final points of Tuesday’s game in unusual fashion.

The 6-foot guard lost his shoe mid-play in the final two minutes of NIU’s Mid-American Conference matchup against Central Michigan University. Thornton remained on the court while teammate senior guard Darweshi Hunter recorded a steal and brought the ball deep into CMU’s side of the court. Hunter passed the ball to a waiting Thornton, who sank the layup with his left hand and his missing shoe in the other.

“I respect (Darweshi) for trusting him (Thornton) to do that,” sophomore guard David Coit said. “That just shows the trust within our team.”

NIU men’s basketball head coach Rashon Burno said he hadn’t seen a play like Thornton’s outside of NBA bloopers.

Thornton’s play wasn’t the only thing the Huskies got to smile about after NIU bagged its first conference win of the season, defeating the Chippewas 73-54 at the Convocation Center.

Three-pointers were part of NIU’s recipe for success. The Huskies sank eight of their 18 shots from three-point land. Half of those makes came off the hands of Coit, who finished as NIU’s leading scorer with 23 points and was one of two Huskies to finish with more than 20 points.

Sophomore guard Zarique Nutter was the game’s second-highest scorer after posting 22 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field.

“Zarique Nutter woke up,” Burno said. “He’s one of the better players in this league. Tonight (Tuesday) was the first time in a long time he’s showed that.”

Tuesday marked NIU’s first game without its top scorer after junior guard Keshawn Williams was lost to injury. Burno said the team’s effort to fill the void left in the team by Williams was a collective one.

“There’s not one guy that can take the place of Keshawn Williams,” Burno said. “We don’t need a hero. We need everyone collectively being 1% better.”

While cooking up shooting success on the court, NIU was burned by personal fouls throughout the game. By the 32nd minute, three Huskies had fouled out of the game. NIU tallied 22 personal fouls.

“Some of those were ticky-tack fouls,” Burno said. “When you’re playing competitive basketball and playing in close quarters, contact happens. We got the short end of the whistle with the fouls with the bigs (big players) but they’ve got to play smart.”

The foul trouble started quickly for NIU after a personal foul called against redshirt senior forward Anthony Crump sent the Chips to the free throw line less than 30 seconds in to take an early 2-0 lead.

During the game’s first media timeout, new NIU volleyball head coach Sondra Parys was accompanied by Victor E. Huskie to midcourt as the announcer recognized her arrival. Parys was formally introduced to the public as the seventh head coach of the program earlier that day.

The game remained closely contested after the first ten minutes of action. NIU narrowly held a 16-15 edge over Central Michigan.

Tied at 17 with 9:13 left to play in the first half, NIU blasted off with a ten-point run sparked by back-to-back three-pointers that forced a CMU timeout. Coit tacked on a free throw and a three-pointer– his second of the night – to put NIU ahead 27-17.

NIU’s largest lead of the half came on the heels of a Hunter three-pointer to boost the Huskie lead to 40-25 with just under two minutes left until halftime. CMU responded with a pair of layups and a made free throw to trim NIU’s lead to 10 by the first-half buzzer, 40-30.

The Huskies boasted a trio of double-digit scorers by halftime. Coit led the way with 14 points – nine coming from three-point land – followed by Nutter and Thornton with 10 points each.

CMU freshman guard Max Majerle cut deeper into NIU’s lead with back-to-back three-pointers to start the second half, reducing the Chips’ deficit to single digits, 44-36. Nutter quickly fired back with a three of his own as the shot clock expired to return the Huskies to a double-digit advantage.

NIU eventually pushed its lead into the 20s after a pair of Crump free throws made it a 61-41 game with 9:32 remaining. A Coit layup three minutes later awarded the Huskies with their largest lead of the night, going up 68-46.

With their fifth win of the season all but secure and the clock showing 1:34, Thornton’s atypical score became one for the highlight reels.

Central Michigan cut its trailing margin down to as low as 15 in the final six minutes before the final buzzer left NIU the victor of its conference home opener.

NIU’s victory moves the team to 5-11 on the season and 1-2 in league play, boosting them up one spot in the conference standings.

The Huskies remain at home for their next matchup as they play host to the University of Toledo as part of a Saturday afternoon doubleheader with NIU women’s basketball at the NIU Convocation Center. The women will begin the day against Ohio University before the men’s game is set to tip off at 3:30 p.m.