Ricardo Patton breathed a sigh of relief on Saturday evening.

While the head coach of the NIU men’s basketball team didn’t receive any job reassurance, his team did snap an eight-game losing streak, beating Toledo 75-70 on the road in overtime.

Down by two in the dying seconds of the second half, the Huskies’ Tyler Storm tipped in an Antone Christian miss to tie the game at 64. Without a timeout, the Rockets came down the floor looking for the win, but a late three-point try wouldn’t go, sending the game to overtime.

NIU (8-19 overall, 4-10 MAC) never trailed in the extra session, as the Huskies outscored the Rockets (4-25, 1-13) 11-6. After scoring only three points in regulation, Christian netted five points in overtime.

“It was a real team effort tonight,” Patton said. “The guys had a lot of energy and took advantage of their opportunities on the road.”

Tim Toler led the way for NIU with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting. The junior college transfer also tore down seven rebounds. Senior guard Jeremy Landers pitched in 14 points and five rebounds for the Huskies.

NIU used a strong team performance to make up for the absence of leading scorer Xavier Silas. The senior shooting guard didn’t travel with the team, because he is still recovering from an ankle injury sustained against Central Michigan last Wednesday.

“There is not a coach in America that wants to play without his best player,” Patton said. “But I was happy that the guys realized that he wasn’t here and they had to go out and play. They did that and everyone gave a great effort.”

Upperclassmen Toler and Landers may have dominated the stat sheet, but Patton chose to applaud the efforts of his underclassmen.

“There were only two seniors on the floor tonight, Jeremy Landers and Michael Patton,” Patton said. “The rest of them were young guys like Antone Christian, Aksel Bolin, Nate Rucker; guys that are still finding their roles on the basketball team.”

While Bolin finished with only three points, it was the rebounding effort of the Norwegian freshman that impressed Patton.

“Aksel had seven rebounds in the first half and eight for the game,” Patton said. “This guy is a couple weeks removed from having his appendix removed. People want to act like that doesn’t matter, but it does.”

The Huskies finished strong, but the team looked to be heading to their ninth straight loss until late in the game. NIU went into the locker room with a five-point lead at halftime.