In its final home game of the season, men’s basketball was defeated at the hands of Central Michigan, 69-50.

The Huskies (5-22, 3-11 MAC) came out of the gates with a lot of energy and jumped out to an early 9-2 lead during the Senior Night game.

“I feel like we should always bring that energy that we did today,” said junior forward Aksel Bolin. “We got stops in the beginning, we got rebounds and we got out and running, got some easy buckets, and that’s what got everybody going.”

The Chippewas (10-18, 3-11 MAC) battled their way back into the game and tied it at 18-18 on a 3-point field goal from freshman forward John Simons.

Central Michigan coach Keno Davis believes his team’s experience had a lot to do with its ability to get back in the game.

“Even though we have six freshmen and four in the starting lineup, we’ve had a lot of games where we’ve been down this year,” Davis said. “… We rarely have gotten blown out. We’ve always come back and worked extremely hard. We’ve been there before so we didn’t get as rattled as we did, maybe to start off the year.”

Simons’ 3-pointer sparked a 9-2 run, giving Central Michigan a 24-20 lead. The Chippewas went into halftime with a 28-25 lead.

The Huskies came out of halftime on an 8-2 run to take a brief 33-30 lead. From there on, it was all Central Michigan.

The Chippewas answered with a 15-2 run of their own to take a 10-point lead, 45-35.

“It was a combination of things,” said NIU coach Mark Montgomery. “Obviously we didn’t score, we turned it over some and they got some runouts… Some things were just self-afflicted; of our 14 turnovers, I don’t know how many they caused. I think we had five travel calls.”

The Huskies pulled the lead back to eight when freshman guard Mike Davis scored five straight points, but the Chippewas closed the game out, scoring the final 11 points of the contest.

Free throws proved to be a big factor in the Huskies’ loss as the Chippewas hit 21 free throws compared to the Huskies’ five.

Central Michigan also had the advantage behind the arc as it hit eight 3-pointers. The Huskies only hit one 3-pointer on 14 attempts.

Chris Fowler, Central Michigan freshman guard, scored a game-high 16 points, while senior guard Kyle Randall poured in 14 and Simons added 10.

Davis led the Huskies with a career-high 12 points in his first start. Bolin and freshman forward Darrell Bowie each scored 11 points; NIU was without sophomore wing Abdel Nader due to personal reasons.

“Mike got a chance to get his first start with Nader’s absence and he took advantage of it,” Montgomery said. “You know, 12 [points] and five [rebounds], he played again over 20 minutes, so he’s in uncharted waters but he’s showing that he can be consistent… And Darrell Bowie again, 11 points and six rebounds, another freshman that stepped up. We just need a little more off the bench.”