Along with the NIU campus, the men’s basketball team was off to a slow start after the Feb. 14 tragedy.

After leading at halftime, the Huskies lost their defensive rhythm and fell to a 56-49 loss to the Western Michigan Broncos.

Tuesday night’s contest was the school’s first home sporting event since the tragedy earlier this month. And with memorial ribbons over their hearts, the Huskies (6-18 overall, 3-9 MAC) played hoops to honor their lost classmates.

“I am extremely proud of our young men,” NIU head coach Ricardo Patton said. “I thought they handled things well. Leading up to the game there was certainly a number of distractions facing the team.”

Patton said Tuesday’s game was a chance for the team to write their own headlines. Though the team wished they could have written in a different outcome, Patton was pleased with the effort put in by his team.

“As the ball went up, both teams were ready to play,” he said.

Though the Huskies played well defensively, the team turned the ball over 21 times. According to Patton, turnovers remain to be the Huskies’ biggest nemesis.

NIU also faced a challenge in trying to grab the shooter’s bounce. The team only sunk 20 of 58 shots from the field.

Patton said he would have liked to see the players hit more shots but was understanding of the situation.

“There are more important things in life than winning and losing,” he said. “My heart still goes out to the families. That’s what is most important.”

Broncos (17-10, 10-3) head coach Steve Hawkins also gave comment to the situation saying that his team played with heavy hearts.

“First of all it was a very difficult game to play,” Hawkins said. “It is not the circumstance you want.”

Western Michigan’s Joe Reitz also shed light on how he and his teammates handled the game.

“The basketball part was only secondary,” Reitz said. “But once you get going it starts to get normal. As the game went on, the team settled down and played basketball.”

The game quickly reached normalcy for the Broncos, as they hit 43.4 percent of their shots in the second half. David Kool lead Western Michigan in scoring , tallying 16 points in the victory.

Though a burst of offensive energy by the Broncos stole the game away from the Huskies, guard Jake Anderson was glad to be back on the court.

“Having this game was a step forward for the university to get back to normal,” Anderson said. “We just wanted to keep up the tempo and as the game progressed, we got that back.”