Led by a strong first-half performance, men’s basketball came away with its third win of the season, taking down Dartmouth, 64-57, Thursday at the Convocation Center.

The Huskies (3-4) had three players score in double figures. Sophomore wing Darrell Bowie led the way with 12 points, redshirt junior center Jordan Threloff dropped in 11 and redshirt junior center Pete Rakocevic added 10 points of his own off the bench.

In the first half, the Huskies found themselves down seven, trailing 21-14 with 9:58 seconds left in the half. From that point on, it was all NIU as it closed on a 21-3 run to take a 35-24 lead into the locker room.

Sophomore guard J.J. Cravatta was a spark for the Huskies off the bench as he scored all of his eight points during the run. He drilled two three-pointers and added two free throws.

The Huskies’ defense was impressive as they didn’t surrender a point for 9:47, until junior forward John Golden hit one free throw with 11 seconds left in the half.

“They were, in the first half, much more physical than we were,” said Dartmouth coach Paul Cormier. “And we didn’t show much resiliency, I … think, in the first half. They took us out of a lot of things. We lacked the mental toughness, I thought, in the first half a great deal.”

The Big Green recorded their first field goal in nine minutes on the play just before the half when sophomore guard Travon Baker turned the ball over, resulting in a dunk by junior center Gabas Maldunas with one second left.

“I thought our defense picked up,” said head coach Mark Montgomery. “We started getting good stops, and then we got clean rebounds, and then we got a chance to get out in transition. We’re a good transition team. We got a couple drives to the basket, we got a few throw-ahead three-point shots, which are clean looks, and that’s when we’re playing our best basketball.”

Despite the Huskies’ 11-point lead at halftime, Dartmouth came back in the second half to tie the game at 47-47 with just less than eight minutes left to play. From there the game went back and forth, featuring four ties and five lead changes down the stretch. This time the Huskies were able to prevail.

The Huskies took a 56-54 lead on Baker’s lone basket of the game with 3:31 left to play. From there, the game was on the shoulders of Bowie and Threloff, who each scored four points in the final three minutes to seal the win.

“I thought our guys reached down and made some unbelievable plays down the stretch,” Montgomery said. “They executed the offense. and Darrell Bowie came up with an unbelievable, winning play on that missed free throw to put us up five.”