The Huskies came out smoking in the first half of Saturday night’s exhibition game against Club Rio Claro, Brazil and built a 44-40 halftime lead, which NIU later saw disappear.

A six-minute stretch of the second half, during which the Huskies couldn’t buy a basket, helped Brazil climb to a fifteen-point advantage and cruise to a 96-82 victory in front of 1,547 fans at the Chick Evans Field House.

“The difference in the game was the start of the second half,” said NIU head coach Jim Rosborough. “If we eliminate the first 10 minutes of the second half, we played a pretty good game.”

NIU started strong when, after winning the opening tip, Donald Whiteside nailed a three-point bomb from out front to give the Huskies the first lead of the game. Seconds later, Stacy Arrington made it 5-0 after pulling down the first of his five offensive rebounds.

But Brazil soon got its offense on track and hung close until Vanderci Silva hit a running layup with 9:13 left in the half to give Rio Claro its first lead of the game at 23-22. The lead changed hands several times over the next four minutes until the NIU backcourt took over.

With just over five minutes left, Arrington swished an 18-footer from just inside the 3-point stripe. Whiteside scored the Huskies’ next six points on two free throws and a couple of short jumpers in the lane. Arrington drilled another 18-footer at the 1:59 mark to put the Huskies on top 40-38.

Whiteside impressed Brazil head coach Jose Roberto Lux so much that Lux geared his second half defense solely on stopping him.

“Number 20 (Arrington) and number 10 (Whiteside) are great,” Lux said. “In the second half, I made a box-and-one to stop number 10. He was very good at passing and shooting. He’s the leader of the team. If you stop the leader, you stop the team.”

Apparently, Lux was right. Whiteside scored all of his 14 points in the first half on four-of-six shooting, during which time the Huskies played well against a much more experienced Brazilian team. But the box-and-one took Whiteside and the Huskies out of sync, and the bottom fell out of the NIU offensive attack.

Sophomore forward Andrew Wells turned in a team-high 19 points, 16 rebounds and four blocked shots despite being hounded by 6-foot-8 Wagner Camargo throughout most of the game. Donnell Thomas pitched in 18 points and 13 rebounds to contribute to the Huskies’ dominance in the paint. NIU out-rebounded Brazil 58 to 32 without 6-foot-8 center Antwon Harmon, who sat out Saturday’s game for unspecified reasons. Harmon has been named in a theft case which is still pending.

“We got off to a real good start tonight,” Wells said. “Once Antwon gets in the lineup, we’re going to control the boards.”

The Huskies travel to Aurora West High School for the AAU Aurora Challenge tonight at 7:30. Chicago Bulls coach Doug Collins and second-year forward Horace Grant will be on hand.