Either the Huskies looked really good last night or the Ginestico of Brazil team was really bad.

According to Brazil’s head coach, Brad Casey, his team was really bad.

“Any time you make 32 turnovers, you deserve to get your (butts) kicked.” he admitted.

The Huskies rolled to a 90-59 win in the pre-season exhibition game but the way Ginestico played, it was surprising they were only down by nine at the half.

The first half started with NIU running. The problem was they weren’t scoring.

The Brazilians committed 19 first half turnovers. They continually threw the ball away and consistently coughed it up in the Huskies half court press (10 steals).

Yet the Huskies were unable to capitalize on such a large number of free chances, scoring only 41 first half points. Head coach Brian Hammel blamed the lack of execution mainly on the transition game.

“We were just a little to impatient,” Hammel said. “We kind of put the ball on the floor way too quick. We just need to slow down and read the defense.”

The Huskies started out flat, falling behind quickly 7-2 with only two minutes of the game gone.

Things started going NIU’s way after Hubert Register connected on an eight-foot turnaround jumper to tie the game at 11. The Huskies then rolled off the next eight points to put the game in its proper perspective.

Still the Huskies would have gone into the second half with a weak six point lead if not for a heads up play by freshman guard Ronald Mintor.

With only seconds remaining and the Huskies on their way to a three on none dunk, Mintor looked at the clock and drained a three-pointer from well beyond pro distance to highlight an otherwise dreary half.

With the starters mainly returners from last year’s squad, Hammel brought out an entirely new lineup to begin the second half.

Hammel gave Jamal Robinson and Peter Rohlwing their first tastes of collegiate experience and admitted afterwards that he was impressed with what he saw.

Robinson scored seven points in 16.5 minutes and showed some great moves around the basket. Rohlwing racked up eight points and two blocks in his 15.5 minutes.

For the game, the high scorer for the Huskies was Randy Tucker with 13. Marlin Simms made an impressive showing after missing all of last season with a herniated disk to score 11. The only other Huskie in double digits was Mike Lipnisky with 10.

Despite the problems, NIU still shot .507 from the floor for the game while keeping Ginestico at .412.

“We won the game but it’s a poor barometer for us,” Hammel said. “I’m a lot more concerned with how we play. If anything, (this game showed us) how we can do a better job of getting better mentally prepared.”