For the second time this season, Eastern Illinois had its way with NIU men’s basketball.

After holding the Huskies (5-21, 3-10 MAC) to 25 points in their first victory, the Eagles (13-15, 6-7 MAC) won 53-41 at the Convocation Center on Wednesday. The loss was the Huskies’ seventh consecutive.

Eastern Michigan was led offensively by senior guard Derek Thompson and redshirt junior forward Glenn Bryant, who both poured in 14 points. Thompson had 11 of his 14 points in the first half on three 3-pointers.

The Eagles, being the top defensive team in the MAC, held the Huskies to 23 percent shooting from the field.

“It’s not uncommon for us to hold teams to scoring droughts throughout the conference,” said Eastern Michigan head coach Rob Murphy. “We have the No. 1 field goal defensive team in our league. But I think our length may bother them a little bit. I think they do a good job attacking the zone, but when you’re shooting contested shots, because of our length it makes it extremely difficult.”

Eastern Michigan’s two-three zone caused a lot of problems for the Huskies on offense, as they turned the ball over 18 times, which led to 18 points off turnovers.

“Well they have a stingy two-three zone,” said coach Mark Montgomery. “They’re wide, they’re athletic. If you get the ball inside, they wall you and try to block shots. It’s just hard to get into seams, and then if you’re not knocking down shots to really get them scrambling, it gets tougher.”

On offense, the Huskies did not have one player score in double figures. Their top two leading scorers, sophomore wing Abdel Nader and junior forward Aksel Bolin scored a combined seven points.

NIU was led on offense by three freshmen. Guard Travon Baker and forward Darrell Bowie each scored eight points, while guard Mike Davis scored a team-high nine points.

“It’s great to see the freshmen step up,” Montgomery said. “Darrell got off to a tough start in the first half and he was in foul trouble, but in the second half he had eight points and six rebounds. And Travon Baker, he goes two for two from behind the arc, he had eight points and a couple rebounds. And Mike Davis… he goes three for eight, he had nine points and lead us in scoring.”