Flaws seen in defense

By PATRICK H. MOORE

Last night at Chick Evans Field House the men’s basketball team dusted the Ginestico of Brazil squad 90-59.

Huskie fans finally got a chance to see Huskie super-soph Jamal Robinson lace up his sneakers and get his college career off to a late start after sitting out his freshman year.

Robinson sat out the entire first half and saw the majority of the action in the paint for the Huskies in the second half going one-of-eight from the field and five of six from the charity stripe.

“I’m not worried about Jamal’s field goal percentage because he is very difficult to guard and the shots he missed tonight he will make often than not,” said head coach Brian Hammel.

The Ginestico squad committed 32 turnovers, of which a large portion of them were unforced.

“We suck,” said Brad Casey, head coach of Ginestico. “We don’t play defense like that in Brazil, we saw some tight pressure defense tonight and are young guards just couldn’t handle it.”

When the Ginestico guards weren’t throwing the ball away or hand delivering the ball to Huskie defenders, they were working the ball into NIU’s interior which caused Hammel to get worked up with his young squad.

“You can’t just give up easy lay-ups like we were giving up tonight,” Hammel said. “That’s just a complete lack of discipline.

On the offensive side of the ball the Huskies managed to put points on the board, but never found a go-to guy the entire game.

Randy Tucker led the way for the Huskies with 13 points, as 13 other NIU ball players managed to score.

“Tonight we had too many breakdowns offensively,” Hammel said. “We had guys out there driving to the hole, jumping in the air, and throwing up prayers and that is just not the way you play basketball. The game of basketball is not a high wire act.”