To say the Huskies’ 20th win this season wasn’t easy might be the understatement of the year.

It took double overtime for the NIU men’s basketball team to shake off a stubborn Eastern Illinois squad 74-69 at Lantz Gym.

Once again, it was the Huskies’ dynamic duo of Donnell Thomas and Donald Whiteside that led NIU to victory. With Eastern up 65-62 and under a minute left in the first OT, Whiteside sent the game to a second extra session with a three-pointer.

In the second overtime it was Thomas’ short hook shot that gave the Huskies a 71-69 lead with a minute and a half left in the marathon match.

The 6-4 forward then rebounded an Eastern miss and passed to Whiteside, who was fouled. Whiteside canned the clinching free throws with 22 seconds left. Andrew Wells added a charity toss with 11 seconds remaining to make the final 74-69.

“Champions find ways to win,” said NIU head coach Jim Molinari whose squad moved to 20-2 overall with a commanding 11-1 mark in the Mid-Continent Conference. The Panthers dropped to 11-9 and 6-4 in the loop.

The Huskies almost pulled out a victory after the first extra session, but Whiteside could not get a shot off with one second left and the score knotted at 65.

“Eastern came out in a zone and then went man-to-man and we got confused,” Molinari said. “We didn’t get a good shot.”

NIU didn’t get many good shots in the first half of the game either. The Huskies hit only four field goals in the opening half and trailed 8-0 at the game’s start, but hit 17 of 18 free throws to lead 27-23 at intermission.

NIU led for the entire second half, at times by as many as 10 points, before Steve Rowe’s basket tied the game at 60 and sent NIU to its first overtime game of the year.

Thomas led the scoring with 20 points and Whiteside added 18. Molinari rewarded his team after the grueling match the best way he could. “They have the day off tomorrow,” Molinari said.