Men’s basketball’s 66-58 road loss to Western Michigan will be a tough pill for the team to swallow.

With the Huskies (5-19, 3-9 MAC) leading 58-50 with 4:01 left to play in the game, the Broncos (16-9, 8-4 MAC) went on a 16-0 run to close out the game.

Following a layup from Broncos freshman forward Connar Tava, redshirt junior guard David Brown hit a 3-point field goal with two seconds left on the shot clock, cutting the Huskies’ lead to three, 58-55.

On the Huskies’ next possession, Brown stole freshman Darrell Bowie’s pass and scored a layup on a fast break, bringing the Broncos within one, 58-57, with two minutes remaining.

The next Huskies possession had the same result: Bowie turned the ball over, leading to a 3-point field goal from sophomore guard Austin Richie to give the Broncos a 60-58 lead.

“I don’t know if we let it slip or Western [Michigan] just found a way to take the game at the end,” said coach Mark Montgomery. “I thought that our young team probably got rattled a little bit at the end and Western made some plays … They made the plays in the end but, to tell you the truth, I thought we outplayed them for 38 minutes.”

Despite the Broncos jumping out to an early 7-2 lead, the Huskies led the majority of the game after they took an 8-7 lead on WMU freshman guard Mike Davis’ layup with 15:38 remaining the first half.

“Defense and rebounding and executing our plays and taking our time on offense [were important],” said junior redshirt Antone Christian.

NIU led by five, 37-32, at halftime behind a strong half offensively; it went 13 of 24 from the field, shooting 54 percent.

“It was a very positive feeling,” Christian said. “We just wanted to keep the rhythm going in the second half. We [have] a really good rhythm going. Everyone was scoring, everyone was picking each other up.”

Western Michigan tied the game at 46-46 with 10:32 left in the second half on two free throws from redshirt junior Shayne Whittington.

The Huskies responded with a 9-0 run to give them a 56-48 lead with five minutes to play in the game

The Broncos were led offensively by Whittington, who scored a game-high 15 points while adding nine rebounds. Three other Broncos scored double figures, as Tava scored 12, Richie scored 11 and Brown added in 10 off the bench.

Junior forward Aksel Bolin was the lone Huskie to score double figures, as he scored 10 points. Sophomore Kevin Gray was the next highest scorer for the Huskies with eight points.