DeKALB | The weather in DeKalb mirrored the NIU men’s basketball team’s 71-64 loss against Central Michigan at Mount Pleasant, Mich.

At times, it looked manageable. At other times, a sheer white-out where nothing could be done.

With seven minutes left in the first half, the game was tied at 17. It was either team’s game.

A Reynold Walters lay-up at 6:44 started a 10-0 run for the Chippewas to go up 27-17 with under three minutes left.

The Huskies couldn’t counter the run and went into halftime down 32-22.

NIU found itself in the beginning of the second half and responded to the Chippewas’ run by going on a 11-4 run to cut CMU’s lead down to six.

But where the Huskies couldn’t make a counter-run, CMU had no problem. The Chippewas went on another run, this time 11-0, to go up 50-33.

Head coach Rob Judson credited turnovers and inability to hit three-pointers as the main reason for the run. For the game, the Huskies shot 2-10 from behind the arc.

But NIU continued to chip away at the score. And despite the early second half deficit, with one minute left in the game, Mike McKinney scored on a jumper to pull the score to 65-60.

“We battled back and got into the ball game,” Judson said. “But we were in too deep of a hole.”

The Huskies fouled to get possession, but CMU went 6-of-8 on the free throw line to close out the game. Sefton Barrett made five of those free-throws, going 5-of-6.

NIU saw most of its points come in the paint, out-scoring CMU 42-26 in the paint. Yet despite getting the ball down low, NIU only forced 13 fouls where CMU forced NIU into 22.

“We’re attacking the paint,” Judson said. “We should get free-throws more.”

McKinney lead all scorers with 23 points to go along with nine rebounds. Cody Yelder added 14 points.

CMU’s Giordan Watson, the second leading scorer in the MAC, had 20 points and five rebounds.