DeKALB – NIU sophomore guard Quentin Jones and senior guard James Dent Jr. each scored 20-plus points in a losing effort as NIU men’s basketball came up short against the Mid-American Conference’s top team in the University of Akron on Tuesday night.
The Huskies (5-15, 1-7 MAC) held a lead for only 2 minutes and 48 seconds of a 40-minute clash with the Zips (15-5, 8-0 MAC), culminating in NIU’s seventh loss in its past eight games.
Jones put up 25 points and Dent had 22 in the defeat, each recording a team-high six rebounds. Adding to their efforts, sophomore guard Kailon Nicholls contributed 12 points along with four steals – a performance head coach Rashon Burno called “his best game in our uniform.”
Despite losing starting junior forward Ethan Butler early into the game due to issues stemming from the stomach virus that sidelined him in Saturday’s win against Ball State University, NIU remained fiercely competitive with a vaunted Akron program.
The Huskies fought their Ohio-based foes within four points by halftime, only for the favored Zips to pull away after the break. Burno pointed to his team’s lack of depth as a major factor in NIU’s second-half struggles.
“You got two guys with 40 minutes of action, especially at a high-level, high-intensity game like this. It got into our legs,” Burno said. “Akron has depth, and they utilized it to take advantage of our lack of it.”
The visiting Zips wasted no time climbing into the driver’s seat, making five of their first seven attempts from beyond the arc to take a 17-5 lead five minutes in. From there, the Huskies engineered a 15-0 run that put themselves at a 20-17 advantage midway through the first half.
“We started off a bit flat,” Nicholls said. “But once we got our energy up on the defensive end, our offense flowed.”
Dent scored 11 points during that stretch, capping the run with a pair of triples in the span of 14 seconds. Akron then responded with a 16-4 run to reclaim the lead with 4:39 until halftime.
As the final seconds fell off the first-half clock, NIU had a chance to trim its deficit to a single possession score following a 9-4 run. Dent attempted a jumper just before the halftime buzzer, only for his shot to fall well short of the net, sending the teams into the locker rooms with Akron ahead 37-33.
The Huskies quickly brought the contest to a 40-40 tie less than two minutes into the second period. The Zips snatched the lead back 46 seconds later and would never give it back, going up as much as 14 points with 50 seconds left in regulation.
Though he dropped 16 points in the first half, Dent was a non-factor in the second. The Western Illinois University transfer put up just 6 points in the final 20 minutes.
“I just wasn’t making my shots,” Dent said. “I was really just moving the ball more in the second half … I don’t really feel like they (Akron) did anything to shut me down.”
Meanwhile, Jones tallied 19 second-half points, including the game’s final points – a tip-in with 13 seconds left to play.
Though Tuesday’s outcome is yet another addition to the mountain of losses NIU has accrued this season, Burno felt there were positives to be taken from battling the defending MAC champions within 10 points – the 80-70 final being Akron’s third-closest game in league play so far.
“It shows that we can compete, whoever is out there,” Burno said. “But we’ve got to get guys healthy to join the fight for these guys.”
Now back in the loss column, the Huskies turn their attention toward their upcoming clash with the University of Toledo Rockets at 1 p.m. Saturday at John F. Savage Arena in Toledo, Ohio. The game will be available on ESPN+, and live statistics will be updated on SIDEARM Sports.