NIU men’s basketball continued its road trip woes, losing to Akron 75-51 Saturday.

NIU (3-20, 2-9 MAC) went on a 9-0 run after trailing 10-4 in the first half, led by Abdel Nader scoring five-straight points to help the Huskies take a 13-10 lead after seven minutes of play.

Akron (18-7, 10-1 MAC), last year’s MAC champions, came back to take a one point lead, 17-16, midway through the first half and never gave up the lead from that point on.

The Zips went on a 12-3 run to increase their lead to 28-20, before ending the half leading, 31-24.

“We definitely concentrated on the first five minutes of the game, getting off to a good start,” said NIU coach Mark Montgomery. “We wanted to make sure that we were aggressive and we were concentrating on both ends of the floor. I give credit to our guys; we were only down seven at the half against a team that is very explosive and deep.”

NIU had 13 turnovers in the first half and its zone defense kept leaving Akron players wide open on the perimeter. However, the Zips managed to go 4-13 from three-point range.

In the second half, both teams got off to slow starts. Akron got to the free throw line five times in the first three minutes, and opened up 37-29 lead.

The Zips continued to increase the lead, going on a 14-0 run that put them up 59-34.

NIU couldn’t match Akron’s offensive production in the second half. As the Zips’ lead grew bigger, they cycled through their entire bench, which helped them score 44 points in the second half compared to NIU’s 27.

“We really competed for about 25 minutes in that game and then the ball started to bounce Akron’s way,” Montgomery said.

Akron forward Nikola Cvetinovic led it with 14 points on 5-6 shooting. Forward Nick Harney finished with 12 points, and Demetrius Treadwell had 11 points and eight rebounds.

Nader and freshman Keith Gray both finished with 13 points for the Huskies, who shot 33 percent from the field and missed on 12 of their 15 three-point attempts.