NIU men’s basketball dropped its season opener on the road to Georgia Southern University by a score of 80-65.
The Huskies struggled shooting the ball in their first contest of the season, shooting just 39% from the field, 22-for-57, and 27% from three, 8-for-30. Georgia Southern shot 48% from the field, 31-for-64, and 44% from three-point range, 12-for-27.
The Huskies shot 31%, 10-for-32, from the field in the first half and 20% from three-point range, 3-for-15.
“The three-point line, they made 12-for-27. So, we’ve got to do a better job of securing the ball and then we’ve got to get another guy to step up and make shots, we were 8-for-30 from three,” NIU basketball head coach Rashon Burno said.
Senior guard James Dent Jr. was the leading scorer for the Huskies in his first game with the program. Dent tied his D-1 career-high with 24 points in the game, shooting an efficient 8-for-11 from the floor and 5-for-8 from three.
In the first half, Dent led the Huskies in scoring, putting up 13 of the Huskies 24 points in 17 minutes on the court. The Western Illinois University transfer was the only NIU player to make multiple threes in the first half, going 2-for-4 from beyond the arch.
The only other Huskie to total at least 10 points in the contest was junior forward Ethan Butler, who finished the game with 10 points and tied for the team lead with six rebounds.
Graduate student guard Joe Munden Jr. and freshman Terry Copeland Jr. also had six rebounds in the contest for the Huskies.
The Huskies trailed for the entirety of the game, with their largest deficit being 19 points at 59-40 and their smallest deficit being one point.
The Huskies were also unable to capitalize on turnovers as they totaled 15 turnovers by Georgia Southern in the game but only totaled nine points off those turnovers.
The Eagles totaled 19 turnovers from the Huskies and were able to convert those turnovers into 31 points.
“They scored 31 points off of our 19 turnovers, where we converted 15 turnovers and only had nine points,” Burno said. “So that’s the difference.”
Georgia Southern had 19 points off of forced turnovers in the first half, while the Huskies only had five points off of turnovers.
Georgia Southern went on a big run midway through the first half, giving them an 18-point advantage near the end of the first half.
From the 8:31 mark in the first half to the 3:43 mark, Georgia Southern went on a 17-0 run to take a 35-17 lead. The Huskies closed the half trailing 40-24 following a 22-7 Georgia Southern run.
The Huskies next game will be 6 p.m. Thursday at the Convocation Center in DeKalb where the Huskies will take on Holy Cross College.
