If former Miami (Ohio) quarterback Ben Roethlisberger plays anything like his alma mater’s men’s basketball team, the Arizona Cardinals won’t be crowned NFL Champions.

The Pittsburgh quarterback, making the trip to the Super Bowl on Sunday, would have been proud to wear his college gear Tuesday night, as the RedHawks notched a dominating 80-52 win over NIU. The Huskies are now 1-6 on the road.

“The story tonight was the difference between a veteran ball club, and one that has a lot of underclassmen that are still learning how to play at this level,” said NIU head coach Ricardo Patton. “It was a classic example of experience versus inexperience. The game was allowed to be played very physically, and that was certainly to our disadvantage.”

Cold-shooting hurt the Huskies (6-12 overall, 2-4 MAC) as the team barely hit 22 percent of its shots in the first half. Post players Sean Kowal and Ante Dzepina managed high-percentage tries in the game’s first 10 minutes, but rarely found opportunities under the basket.

Instead, the Huskies tested their luck from the outside, but only hit 2-12 attempts from behind the arc. Oppositely, Miami sunk just over 50 percent of their shots and headed into the locker room with a comfortable 40-20 halftime lead.

“We wanted to come out with energy,” said RedHawk head coach Charlie Coles. “Tonight we turned a lot of possessions into fast-break baskets. We had a lot of good offensive play in the first half.”

NIU opened the second half with a 3-pointer by senior Sean Smith, but then failed to convert on nine of the next 10 possessions. Freshman Tyler Storm hit a free throw to give his team its sole point during the span, and ended a RedHawk run capitalizing on another free shot.

However, Miami countered Storm’s one point with three, as Nick Winbush hit a deep shot from beyond the arc. With the trey, Winbush singlehandedly took the fight out of the Huskies.

“We stayed focused on trying to make a comeback,” said sophomore guard Jake Anderson. “Lots of teams have come back from greater deficits than 20 points. We wanted to come out, execute the game plan and try to chip away at the lead. That’s all you can do when you fall behind by a large deficit. We obviously weren’t able to accomplish that in the second half.”

In the last five minutes, NIU fell as much as 34 points behind the RedHawks before coming within 28 to finish the contest. Anderson was the only Huskie to score in double-digit figures, tallying 13 points on 13 attempts. Storm finished the game with 9 points, going 5-8 from the charity stripe.

Anderson also led his team in rebounding with seven boards, followed closely by freshman Bryan Hall, who pulled down six.

Rebounding was the only statistical advantage held by the Huskies, who finished the game shooting a season low 31 percent from the floor, and 19 percent from behind the arc.

Comparatively, Miami knocked down 46 percent of its shots, and 24 percent of their tries from three-point range.