On a historical Inauguration Day, President Barack Obama promised the people of America that change was on its way.

And that change arrived early for the NIU men’s basketball team as they broke their two game conference losing streak with a 72-52 win over Eastern Michigan last night at the Convocation Center.

With the victory, NIU (6-10 overall, 2-2 MAC) totalled their win count from the previous season, and reached the .500 mark in conference play.

“It was a tremendous team effort, we had 16 assists on 27 field goals,” said NIU head coach Ricardo Patton. “We played patiently on the offensive side and did a good job of getting the inside. We shot 62 percent from the game, and we really took good, high percentage shots.”

Post play gave the Huskies the edge as Ante Dzepina and Sean Kowal teamed up to dominate early in the paint. Dzepina tallied a career high 10 points, while Kowal led the team in scoring with 20.

“We wanted to play what we call inside-out,” Patton said. “Certainly, we didn’t want to rely solely on three-point shots to win the game. We thought we had a slight advantage in the middle.”

NIU’s efforts in the paint proved worthwhile, as 42 of the team’s 63 points came from underneath the basket. Dzepina played aggressively and found himself shooting from the charity stripe nine times. The Croatia native went 6-9 from the free-throw line.

The Huskies took the lead early and never looked back. In the first half, NIU led by as much as 20 points before heading into the locker room with a 35-17 lead.

Eastern Michigan came out in the second half with a 7-0 run, but sophomore Jake Anderson snapped the streak with a drive to the hoop. NIU gained momentum again to extend their lead back to 20 with nine minutes left to play and won the game by the same margin.

The Eagles could not fight the large deficit and ended the contest shooting 38 percent from the field. EMU went 1-13 from behind the arc, and 13-29 from the charity stripe.

“It’s like the saying, ‘you’re standing on the beach and can’t put the ball in the ocean’,” said EMU head coach Charles Ramsey. “It wasn’t just from the free-throw line either. It was a horrendous shooting effort.”

Kowal chalked the win up to fan support, and said he loves when the crowd gets into the game. Dzepina came up with the idea to join the band after the buzzer to celebrate the win.

“I talked to Coach Sundance [Wicks} and said listen, the band was great tonight, and I think it would be great of us to say thanks,” Dzepina said. “We really appreciate their help.”