DeKALB | Without much of a fight, the NIU men’s basketball team fell 80-51 to Boise State Monday evening.

The Broncos smothered NIU (2-3) with a pressure defense that produced a 26-6 BSU (6-0) run to end the first half. Starting point guard Bryan Hall came out of the game after incurring his third foul at 5:28 of the first half, forcing Michael Patton to bring the ball up the floor in place of injured back-up point guard Kyree Jones.

NIU head coach Ricardo Patton knew that without a game-tested point guard, it would be tough to come back from any deficit.

“We needed more leadership on the floor at that point; sometimes when you aren’t an experienced team that’s what happens to young players,” Patton said. “It hurt us for Bryan Hall to pick up his third foul, so we were really without a point guard for the majority of the game when Hall came out.”

Coming off two straight 34-point performances, senior Xavier Silas has made a habit of overcoming defenses specifically designed to stop him. On Monday evening, though, Silas was unable to get on any sort of run, finishing the night with nine points on 2-of-9 shooting. Silas had little to offer as an explanation after the game.

“It was no different than any other night, they did the same things as everyone else,” Silas said. “It was just one of those nights where we didn’t have the effort that we need to have.”

Junior college transfer Tim Toler represented the only bright spot for the Huskies in an otherwise disappointing affair, shooting 4-of-7 from the field in 21 minutes of action. In a one-minute stretch, Toler registered a three-point shot, a layup, and his second block of the season.

During a timeout in the middle of the first half, Toler got visibly upset with the effort his teammates were putting out.

“We usually come in and from the tip we preach how we want to come out strong and I thought we did that for the first two minutes,” Toler said. “But after that we all seemed to break down after a couple steals, and after that it just all seemed to go down hill.”

Boise State head coach Leon Rice’s fear that his team would come out flat after a Saturday contest quickly dissipated as the game wore on.

“I was really concerned with the short turnaround, and I’m really proud with the way they approached the travel and short prep time,” Rice said. “I think that’s the advantage of having seniors, there was some maturity about the way they approached this game.”

The Huskies have little time to regroup as they’ll hit the road Thursday to take on DePaul at the All-State Arena in a 7:30 p.m. game.