DeKALB | With his mother and daughter watching, James Hughes made Senior Day perfect.

Well, almost.

Hughes was 10-for-10 from the field until 1:53 was left in the game, when he missed on his last jumper to finish the game 10-for-11 from the field. Hughes was also accurate from the foul line, connecting on four of five from the charity stripe. The senior center dominated on the defensive end, tying a career-high with six blocked shots.

In his final career home game, Hughes went out accomplishing a pair of milestones: scoring his 1,000th career point and pulling down his 500th career rebound.

Hughes had a key block with 48 seconds remaining in the game to stop a Eastern Michigan run in the NIU men’s basketball team’s 76-69 win.

“It was about emotion,” Hughes said after his final game at NIU.

That emotion came from his mother, who flew in from Phoenix to watch her son play for the third time in his college career.

“Maybe what we need is his mom here all the time,” NIU head coach Rob Judson joked.

Some added emotion was placed on display when Hughes took his daughter out with him while being introduced for Senior Day.

A scary moment came when Hughes tried to get his own rebound on a missed free throw and got caught on the back of an Eastern Michigan player. Hughes fell off the player’s back and landed on his side.

But Hughes got up, walked the injury off, and with Judson pumping the crowd up, made his two free throws. Hughes was also stellar from the foul line, going 4-for-5.

“We need to figure out if he needs to take his pillow, or whatever he has at home, that made him play like that to Cleveland,” Judson said.