Coming off a loss against the undefeated No. 23 Miami University on Wednesday, NIU men’s basketball (7-14, 3-7 MAC) found an offensive spark and was able to squeak out a win against the Georgia State University Panthers (9-16, 6-6 SBC) on Saturday, 75-74
“We are not shooting the ball particularly well throughout the season,” head coach Rashon Burno said. “We need to figure out ways to muster second and third attempts at the rim.”
In the first half of play, the Huskies shot lights out. NIU’s scoring spree was driven by a combined 24 points from freshman guard Dylan Ducommun and sophomore guards Gianni Cobb and Makhai Valentine.
Despite the Huskies shooting 46% from deep in the opening half, Georgia State still found itself with a two-point lead going into halftime. The Panthers maintained the lead thanks to dominance on the glass, out-rebounding the Huskies 23-15.
‘We just wanted to execute our sets,’ Ducommun said. “We needed to focus on us, and continue executing the right offense.”
In the second half, NIU continued its stretch of high scoring in hopes of getting out of its nagging deficit. The run was ignited by a six-point stretch from freshman guard Taj Walters to open the second half.
Led by Valentine’s scoring, the Huskies took their final lead with just over a minute left.
By the buzzer, NIU managed to come up with a one-point win, 75-74, led by Valentine’s 23-point scoring bomb and Ducommun’s 8 assists.
As a team, the Huskies shot 48% from beyond the arc and 44% from the field.
“I just wanted to come and get a win,” Valentine said. “My teammates put me in a good situation to score. We can play from behind, we’ve got guys who give the game 1,000%, so from there, we just have to focus on playing great defense, and the offense will carry over.”
UP NEXT
The Huskies will face the Bowling Green State University Falcons at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Convocation Center. The game will be live on ESPN+, with stats available on SIDEARM Sports.
“The focus is to get a win in conference play on Wednesday,” Burno said.
