DeKALB – The NIU men’s basketball team suffered its first home loss of the season Wednesday night after posting its worst shooting performance in two years in a 75-48 shortfall against Elon University at the Convocation Center.
The Huskies (2-3) shot a “dreadful” 30.5% from the field, converting just 18 of their 59 shot attempts against the Phoenix (2-2). It was NIU’s lowest field goal shooting percentage since its 68-50 loss to the Georgia Institute of Technology on Nov. 17, 2022.
NIU also struggled mightily on the defensive side of the ball, allowing four Phoenix players to finish in double figures. Elon junior guard TK Simpkins led the game with 19 points. His twin brother, sophomore guard TJ Simpkins, followed with 16 points off the bench.
NIU men’s basketball head coach Rashon Burno didn’t mince words about his team’s performance, calling it an “utter embarrassment.”
“It was a dreadful performance,” Burno said. “Obviously, we’ve got to get better. But tonight, we’ve got to figure out, what do we need to do to get these guys ready to compete on a consistent level? This is not the standard that these kids want, but we’ve got to get better. This was an utter embarrassment.”
Senior guard James Dent Jr. finished as NIU’s leading scorer for the second time this season. The Western Illinois University transfer put up 16 points – sinking four triples – and had four assists. Graduate student guard Joe Munden Jr. added eight rebounds to achieve his highest mark of the year.
“I could’ve done better,” Dent said. “I got beat a couple times off the dribble. We just need to stay focused on the defensive end. But offensively, shots weren’t falling. We need to just find other ways to get better shots.”
Stuck as the second fiddle
Munden scored the game’s first points off a triple and a layup to put NIU at an early 5-3 lead. After the Phoenix answered with a layup to even the game, NIU played the chaser for the rest of the night. The Huskies finished with just 31 seconds of lead time.
Elon kicked off an 11-0 scoring run midway through the first half to take a 34-20 lead with 4:23 left until halftime. NIU junior guard Quaran McPherson scored 7 of the Huskies’ last 9 points of the frame, making it a 38-29 affair at the game’s halfway point.
NIU’s shooting struggles only got worse after the break. The Huskies made just 25.9% of their field goal attempts in the second half, compared to 34.4% shooting in the first.
“Once we got down, and they made the game a little bit of a slowed-down pace, I think we got frustrated,” Burno said. “The ball went around the basket, we didn’t step into shots and then we didn’t finish when we did get into the paint.”
The Phoenix continued to extend their lead in the final 20 minutes, leading by as much as 30 points with 1:58 left to play. NIU sophomore guard Quentin Jones registered the contest’s final points with a 3-pointer with 50 seconds to go.
With the loss, NIU fell to 0-2 in the all-time series against Elon, who won the first meeting between the teams in 2016. The Phoenix also left DeKalb with their first non-conference road win since 2018.
Self-repair needed before DePaul
The Huskies won’t play at the Convocation Center again until December as they prepare to spend the next three games on the road. Their first next matchup will see NIU take on undefeated DePaul University (5-0) on Saturday in Chicago.
But before Burno can shift the Huskies’ attention to his alma mater, he said they must first correct the issues that plagued them.
“We’ve got to figure out what we need to do about us,” Burno said. “… We’ll worry about DePaul on Friday. But tomorrow (Thursday), we’ve got to get to the drawing board, and we’ve got to get guys to perform better when it matters.”
