Tuesday night’s anticipated showdown between NIU (12-1) and DePaul (8-6), lived up to its billing and became a showcase for the Huskies’ Donnell Thomas.

In NIU’s 70-61 win, Thomas showed the Blue Demons, the SportsChannel TV audience, and the record-setting capacity crowd of 6,261 just why he is considered by NIU head coach Jim Molinari as one of the best 6-4 post players in the nation.

Thomas scored 20 points and hauled in a season-high 17 rebounds against a much taller DePaul team.

Thomas, however, was quick to point out that his performance as due to the total team effort displayed by the Huskies.

“They (DePaul) have a lot of great athletes,” Thomas said. “We knew that we had to out-team them to beat them because we couldn’t go one-on-one with them.”

The game-high 17 rebounds that Thomas collected nearly matched the entire DePaul team’s total of 24 for the game, and his 12 rebounds off the defensive glass kept the Blue Demons at bay the entire night.

“When it comes time to play, Donnell (Thomas) steps up and plays,” Molinari said. “He works very hard and he’s such a competitor.”

“I talked to this team about rebounding before the game and when you can hold a team (like DePaul), which averages 15 offensive rebounds a game, to four offensive rebounds, you know you’ve done your job.”

DePaul head coach Joey Meyer was also impressed by Thomas’ performance, but not surprised.

“He does as good a job of posting up as anyone we’ve seen,” Meyer said. “(NIU) will win a lot of games this year.”

Although this is the biggest victory of the season, the Huskies will have little time to celebrate this victory as top conference rival UW-Green-Bay comes to the fieldhouse Saturday.