Sean Smith may have been the only player to be honored on Senior Night, but the entire men’s basketball team enjoyed the celebration as the Huskies came away with a win over Ball State on Saturday.

Fans in the Convocation Center were at the edge of their seats as the Huskies were able to hold onto a one-point lead to steal a 56-55 victory over the MAC West leader.

“The sole lesson we should take from this game is that defense wins,” said NIU head coach Ricardo Patton. “When you’re not making shots, and you think about Sean Kowal not playing at all and Mike DiNunno not able to find the basket, we still found a way to win, and that was with our effort on the defensive end.”

The game came down to 8 seconds, just enough time for the Cardinals to possibly grab the win. Team leading scorer Brandon Lampley drove the court and pulled up for the shot that would bounce around the rim before falling out. Neither team corralled the rebound as time expired.

“We were right there, had a chance to win the game,” said BSU head coach Billy Taylor. “It was a shot that he has made for us before. I like the shot, we had the right guy shooting at the right time. We had a chance for an offensive board or a tip. We got a good look at the end and couldn’t knock it down.”

Smith was honored prior to his last home game in a Huskies uniform; however, as soon as the game started, his focused changed from celebrating to getting the win. His focus led him to a game-tying high of 20 points, which was enough to lead his team in the scoring column. BSU’s Lampley also tallied 20 points. Joining Smith in double-digits was sophomore Darion “Jake” Anderson (19) and Ante Dzepina (10). Kowal didn’t dress after suffering a mild concussion against Western Michigan earlier in the week. Patton said Kowal should be ready to play by the Wednesday night match-up against Eastern Michigan.

Ball State opened the game with an impressive attack, putting the Huskies as far down as seven points in the first minutes of play. But NIU was able to slowly fight back to end the half with a 23-21 lead. The Huskies would hold the advantage, only going down by two one more time in the contest.

The Huskies were out-shot across the board and were out-rebounded 35-29 even though Taylor was forced to sit three of the team’s top four scorers for more minutes than planned when all three found themselves in foul trouble.

“It makes it difficult when we have to cut minutes for key guys,” Taylor said. “That hurt us, makes it difficult for us to succeed offensively. It caused confusion from an offensive standpoint.”

The win marks the Huskies’ third in a row and completes the team’s first winning streak since November 2006, when the Huskies opened the season with three non-conference wins. The victory also brought Patton to 200 career wins, joining four coaches in the MAC who have seen the feat.