None of the fans at the NIU men’s basketball game this Saturday, hopefully, were first timers.

If they were, chances are they’re not coming back anytime soon. With alumni in attendance, the Huskies found themselves on the losing end of a 58-45 physical beat-down against Central Michigan for their third home loss this season.

“I would like to apologize to the fans that were here [Saturday],” said NIU head coach Ricardo Patton. “I’m not quite sure why we came out sleepwalking the entire game, but we just have to get back to the drawing board and continue to work a little bit harder.”

Freshman Mike DiNunno was the only bright spot for NIU, as the guard tallied a game-high 25 points. The Chicago native went 8-17 from the field, and 4-8 from beyond the arc.

NIU’s lead scorer Jake Anderson was held to only one point on the day, coming in the second half’s thirteenth minute. Anderson, who averages 17.4 points per game, notched his only point at the charity stripe where he went 1-7. From the field, Anderson put up six shots, but saw none of them fall.

“Central Michigan was obviously keying in on Jake and he struggled to get in the lane, which is where he is most effective,” DiNunno said. “He wasn’t getting open looks, and it’s definitely tough on us when Jake Anderson is taken out of our offense. That’s to Central Michigan’s credit. I took it upon myself to find us some offense, but it certainly wasn’t enough. CMU’s defense was great today, and we couldn’t find any offensive rhythm.”

CMU held the Huskies to a season-low 14 points in the paint. In its last match-up against Eastern Michigan, NIU put up 42 points from under the net, but the Chippewas were determined to not fall prey to the inside shot.

“We wanted to establish something on the inside to try to stop [Sean] Kowal and [Ante] Dzepina,” said CMU head coach Ernie Zeigler.

Kowal and Dzepina were held to three and four points respectively, forcing their team to take outside shots.

“A big man is only effective when he has guards surrounding him that can consistently make shots,” Patton said. He needs guys around him that can shoot the ball effectively and keep the defense honest. We just didn’t have that advantage today.”

Defensively, CMU kept the Huskies to a 34.8 percent shooting performance. Along the way, the Chippewas notched five blocks to the Huskies’ one, and nine steals to NIU’s eight. CMU also held an advantage on the board, out-rebounding NIU 39-26. The Huskies are 0-9 this season when losing the battle on the boards.