Last night the Huskies did something that only four teams have mamaged to do in three years—beat the Evansville Aces at Roberts Stadium.

The 53-48 upset victory was clinched by clutch free-throw shooting in the final minute by Donald Whiteside and Donnell Thomas.

“This is as big a win as we’ve had in our program,” said coach Jim Molinari. “After the Florida International game (a 70-67 Huskie loss) to come back and get a great win is a credit to our young men.”

NIU (10-8) entered the game with a 1-7 road record while the Aces (13-9) have been virtually unbeatable at home since 1987-88. Evansville compiled a 38-4 record and were 8-3 at home this season.

“I told our guys… we had to have unselfish teamwork and that’s what we had,” said Molinari. “This was a real team effort. Our bench came in and really helped. It was a great victory for NIU; hopefully we can build on it.”

The Huskies came out on fire early. Three-pointers by Mike Hidden and Whiteside gave NIU an early 10-2 lead. Evansville came back to briefly earn a 14-12 advantage on Scott Schreffler’s three-pointer. It was the last time in the game that the Aces would lead.

With 11 minutes left in the half, Thomas muscled in the basket that gave the Huskies the lead which they held on to for the rest of the hard-fought contest. Mike Hidden scored the half’s final bucket to make the NIU advantage 26-22. Hidden led the Huskies with seven points at intermission.

The early part of the second half was a repeat of the first. The Huskies pounced on Evansville and led by 12, 39-27 on an Andrew Wells basket. The Aces, under the direction of Bobby Knight disciple Jim Crews, battled back and whittled NIU’s lead to 49-46 with under 30 seconds remaining.

With 11 seconds and a three-point margin standing between the Huskies and the upset victory, Whiteside went to the line and sank both shots to give NIU a 51-48 lead. Thomas sealed the win with two charity tosses with four ticks left on the Roberts Stadium clock.

The 8,140 fans in attendance saw Donnell “D-Train” Thomas score a team-high 15 points and, in the process, move into the Top 10 All-Time NIU scoring list. “I take my hat off to Donnell Thomas; I told him he’d have to kick the ball out and he did that,” said Molinari.

Whiteside chipped in with 14 points, including three three-pointers and Stacy Arrington added seven rebounds to help Molinari earn his first upset victory on the road.

Evansvilles’ Scott Shreffler led all scorers with 16 points. The Huskies held the Aces’ leading scorer, Brian Hill, to seven points under his 16 per game average.