Another exhibition game equaled another win for the men’s basketball team.

The Huskies beat Augustana 77-63 in their second contest of the preseason. The win wraps up NIU’s exhibition schedule.

However, some NIU players didn’t feel like they won by 14-points at the end of the night.

“A couple times I had to look up to see if we had the lead,” NIU guard Ryan Paradise said. “That’s not a good feeling.”

The senior lead NIU with five steals and 15 points. The Huskies also had three other players who reached double digits in scoring.

Forwards Michael Hart and Shaun Logan added 13 and 10 points respectively, while guard Cody Yelder supplied another 12 points.

NIU held Augustana’s score to single digits until 5:35 left in the first half. At half time the Huskies lead was double that of the Vikings score, as NIU held a 42-21 advantage.

However, Augustana came out of the locker room with an aggressive attitude. The Vikings started the half on a nine-to-four run.

The Huskies also committed 20 turnovers in the victory. In its win against Aurora, NIU only gave up the ball 11 times.

NIU men’s coach Ricardo Patton said the increase in turnovers was due to having different groups on the court that haven’t practice together.

“We were up big early and in the first half I tried to reward guys with playing time who have been working hard in practice,” Patton said. “The play got sloppy. I had combinations out there that we haven’t practiced with.”

Augustana also showed multiple defensive alignments against NIU. The Vikings switched between man-to-man, a 2-3 zone, and a press defense during the night.

For Hart, the game showed NIU’s offenses still has to improve going into the regular season.

“We got a long way to go,” Hart said of the offense. “It wasn’t like we played bad or anything. We’re still building.”

Although the game wasn’t the most aesthetic win, Patton believes it was a good win nonetheless.

“For us to become a good time we’ve got to play in some games and win some games that aren’t pretty,” the coach said. “We’ve got to learn how to fight through and still come away with a victory.”