Men’s basketball (21-11) advanced to the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament after defeating Western Michigan University (13-19) 56-50 on Monday.

The Huskies’ hot shooting did not carry over from their last contest, as they shot just 32.1 percent (17-53) against Western Michigan, but the team’s defense continued to stifle the opponent as it has all season. The Huskies held the Broncos to just 35.2 percent (19-54) shooting from the field and 16.7 percent (2-12) from beyond the arc. The team will battle No. 2 seed Ohio University for a place in the semifinals.

Senior guard Travon Baker led the Huskies with 18 points and three steals. Baker is now tied for second place in NIU history in assists with 353.

NIU scored nine points in the opening two minutes on two three-pointers by Baker and one by junior guard Aaric Armstead to take a 9-2 lead. The Broncos kept the game close in the period, but only led for 1:23 of the first half.

A three-point play by freshman center Seth Dugan pulled the Broncos within two, 16-14, with 9:39 left to play in the first half. Western Michigan took a 30-29 lead with 28 seconds left before halftime on a three by freshman guard Bryce Moore. Two free throws by Baker with four seconds left gave the Huskies a 31-30 lead at the intermission.

Both teams went close to four minutes into the second half without scoring until Moore hit a jumper to put the Broncos up 32-31. Freshman wing Levi Bradley collected his own rebound on a missed jumper and scored a layup to give the Huskies a 35-32 lead with 15:10 left to play.

A layup by Bronco freshman guard Taylor Perry cut NIU’s lead to 41-39 with 8:05 left in regulation and the score remained that way for close to two minutes. The Broncos had a chance to tie the game with less than two minutes to go, but a missed free throw and a lane violation on the next free throw attempt kept NIU’s 49-47 lead intact. Bradley hit clutch free throws down the stretch to give the Huskies a small cushion in the final seconds to seal the game.

NIU forced 10 steals in the game and scored 13 points off of 18 WMU turnovers. The Huskies had a 21-15 advantage in bench points. The Broncos scored 30 points in the paint to NIU’s 19 but did not have any fast break points.

Junior forward Tucker Haymond led the Broncos with 17 points and Dugan grabbed 11 boards for the visitors.

“We decided to rebound in the second half and I thought we defended good enough, per se, to win the game,” said NIU head coach Mark Montgomery. “It was one of those ‘You can bend but don’t break.’ Keep playing with energy, keep getting a stop, just find a way to will the ball into the basket.

“In the last five minutes we made our free throws and Travon Baker probably made the biggest three in a long time to put us up three, but I thought both teams played their heart out. We missed a big fella today [Marin Maric] because it was a physical, physical game but credit Bradley and [Andrew] Zelis. They were probably two players in the game that helped us win this game.”