DeKALB — Despite an 11-point second-half lead, the men’s basketball team lost its sixth consecutive game of the 2018-19 season against the University of Toledo 57-54 Saturday at the Savage Arena in Toledo, Ohio.

NIU led for more than 80 percent of the game and played some of its best defense of the season. It held the Rockets to a season-low 57 points and 38 percent shooting from the field.

The Huskies allowed seven second-half 3-pointers to help Toledo secure the comeback victory.

“You’re on the road, and it’s a four-minute game; we had our opportunity to take the lead and extend it,” Head Coach Mark Montgomery said. “Our guys played outstanding defense — the ball pressure, our rebounding, our scrambles — it’s just unfortunate we just came up short tonight.”

The Huskies scored the first six points of the contest after junior guard Eugene German assisted on a sophomore guard Rod Henry-Hayes 3-pointer.

Back-to-back buckets from German and senior guard Dante Thorpe pushed NIU’s lead to 16-8 with 7:08 remaining in the first half. German knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:19 remaining to give the Huskies their largest advantage at 23-15. The Rockets scored the final six points of the half to reduce their deficit to 23-21 at the game’s midway break.

“We have to get better at [extending leads heading into halftime],” Montgomery said. “We let some opportunities slip away, but that’s part of the game.”

German scored NIU’s first 13 points of the second half to push the Huskies’ lead to 36-27 with 16:03 left in the game.

Successive possessions with a first-year guard Trendon Hankerson 3-pointer and senior forward Lacey James dunk gave NIU its largest lead of the contest at 43-32, with just over 12 minutes remaining.

Toledo scored 16 of the ensuing 21 points to tie the game at 48 with 5:23 left.The Rockets took their first lead after a junior center Luke Knapke layup gave them a 52-50 advantage with 3:20 remaining.

Thorpe converted an old fashioned 3-point play to bring NIU’s deficit down to 54-53 with 58 seconds left in the game. Toledo took a 57-54 advantage after splitting a pair of free throws.

German and James both missed potential game-tying 3-pointers, securing the 3-point victory for Toledo. The Huskies fell to 5-9 in Mid-American Conference play with the loss.

After scoring 69 or more points in six out of its first eight MAC games, NIU has scored below its season average of 68.8 points per game in four of its last six contests.

“Our guys had unbelievable fight for 40 minutes,” Montgomery said to NIU Athletics. “This is a tough place to win on the road, but I told our guys if we come out like that in the final four games, we are going to come out on the winning side. We know we can compete with anyone in this conference, we just need the ball to bounce our way.”

The Huskies will return to action 7 p.m. Tuesday against the Western Michigan Broncos in the Convocation Center.