DeKALB — Two days before Christmas 1996 — years before the Convocation Center broke ground — NIU blasted Chicago State with a 106-point outing. The Huskies wouldn’t cross the century mark against a Division I opponent again for nearly three decades.
Then, Monday night happened.
NIU kicked off its 2025-26 campaign with a statement on home court, shellacking Louisiana-Monroe 102-82 in its first-ever meeting with the Warhawks. It’s only the second time NIU has started a season in the win column since head coach Rashon Burno’s first year in 2021.
Four Huskies finished the game in double figures, including a pair of double-doubles. Junior guard Jao Ituka led the effort with 19 points off the bench over 19 minutes. Freshman center Gustav Winther had 18 points and 10 rebounds, while sophomore guard Gianni Cobb scored 14 points with 10 assists and no turnovers.
According to NIU Athletics, Cobb is the first NIU player to record double-digit assists and record zero turnovers since at least the 1990-91 season.
“His speed is a game-changer,” Burno said of Cobb. “He has high level, high major speed, and so he’s really going to keep guys off-balance … Now, it’s just a matter of can you make the right reads when necessary? He’s been really good at keeping himself out of harm’s way.”
Sophomore guard Makhai Valentine also contributed 16 points and eight rebounds. As a team, NIU shot 55.4% (36-of-65) from the field, including 40.7% (11-of-27) from deep. The Huskies also outrebounded ULM 44-18 and had a 31-10 advantage in second-chance points.
“I thought our guys, after the first four minutes, really settled in on both ends of the floor,” Burno said. “Initially, we had the jitters … after that first TV timeout, I thought we got our bearings, and then we started to play our style of play on both ends of the floor and guys made shots.”
NIU opened the game at an early deficit, trailing 15-4 nearly four-and-a-half minutes in. The Huskies then embarked on a 14-2 run, taking their first lead of the night, 18-17, off Ituka’s first triple.
After ULM reclaimed the lead, freshman Carlos Coronado buried a corner triple to spark a 12-0 NIU run. The Warhawks quickly trimmed their deficit to a half-dozen before a four-point play by Valentine returned the Huskies to a double-figure lead with 3:05 left in the first half.
NIU entered halftime with a seven-point advantage, 45-38. Winther had a team-best dozen points on perfect 5-for-5 shooting from the field along with six rebounds. Ituka followed close behind with 11 first-half points.
The Huskies were up five in the early stages of the second half before a Daemar Kelly triple and a Winther layup boosted the lead to 58-48. NIU eventually extended itself to an 86-59 lead — its largest of the game — before closing out a 20-point victory.
However, for NIU, the effort didn’t just represent a tally in the win column. It was also proof that , after an offseason filled with uncertainty about an entirely new roster, the players could come together and play complementary basketball. Ituka said team morale is at an “all-time high.”
“It gives us a lot of confidence, because we put in a lot of time in our practices,” Ituka said. “And we all understand that we have a job to do — every single one of us — and it’s all about going out there and executing and understanding that in order for us to win the game, we have to all be bought in and doing our job.”
