If Thursday’s NIU men’s basketball game against Eastern Illinois was typical of a Mid-Continent Conference game, the Big Ten would have to relinquish its reputation as the nation’s most physical conference.

the Huskies outlasted Eastern 59-47 at Chick Evans Field House in a contest that its participants labeled a “slugfest.”

“The refs were letting us play,” said Huskies forward Donnell “D-Train” Thomas who powered his way to 16 points and seven rebounds. “Eastern is a very physical ball team (but) we knew they would wear down.”

“I’m sure our kids will be fatigued and sore tomorrow,” Eastern head coach Rick Samuels said. “It was that kind of a ballgame.”

The Panthers trailed by only a deuce, 32-30 with 14 minutes left in the game, when they started showing signs of wearing down as Thomas predicted. The Huskies outscored Eastern 27-17 the rest of the way to clinch the victory.

The Huskies led for almost the entire contest, but at a less than comfortable margin until the final minutes of the foul-plagued match. An Antwon Harmon dunk with 2:51 remaining matched NIU’s biggest lead of the night at 14.

The victory moves NIU to 16-2 and a two-game lead in the M-C Conference at 7-1. The Panthers dropped to 9-8 overall and fell to 5-3 in the loop at the midway point of conference play.

Wells, who lead the Huskies with 13 boards and added eight points, said NIU wanted to show its conference rivals that the Huskies’ first place standing was no fluke.

“Practice has been really intense. We had slacked off a little bit and we wanted to send a message to the conference,” Wells said.

“Eastern has been playing very well lately,” Thomas said. “Their perimeter players are very athletic. Fortunately, we played some good defense. It was a great team game.”

The Huskies, however, have little time to relish their victory and rest their bumps and bruises from Thursday’s match. M-C Conference rival Northern Iowa invades the fieldhouse Saturday for a 7 p.m. match.

“(Northern Iowa) has had a week to prepare,” NIU coach Jim Molinari said. “They’ll come in here looking for revenge (for a 75-64 NIU victory earlier this season).”

Molinari is looking for some help from NIU students against Northern Iowa (6-14, 3-5).

“The students have been the key, we need them back in full force,” Molinari said. “It’s going to be another war.”