Sometimes looks can be deceiving.

The NIU men’s basketball team pulled off a 73-67 victory against Ball State, but the win was no cake walk.

NIU (12-7 overall, 7-4 MAC) started the game with a 7-0 run in which junior center James Hughes scored 5 points. Despite the early run, the Huskies couldn’t take advantage as they would enter the locker room with only a three-point advantage at halftime.

The second half brought out the best in Ball State forward Skip Mills, as he scored 15 of his 24 points. NIU found an answer, though, as Hughes produced 12 points and senior Anthony Maestranzi added seven in the second half.

Both teams continued to battle late into the second half as the scoreboard showed a tie eight times and the lead flipped six times.

In the end though, it was Ball State’s (7-11, 3-7) inexperience that produced a risky defensive scheme and costly turnover to hand the game to NIU.

“We just made some mistakes at the end of the game that cost us,” Mills said. “I’m not really sure exactly what happened, but whatever happened can’t happen again because it cost us the game.”

Ball State coach Tim Buckley believed the balanced attack of the Huskies proved to be too much for his team.

“I think that their energy was very good,” said Buckley. “Their energy off the bench was great.”

Hughes led the Huskies with 18 points, while senior Todd Peterson posted a team-best five rebounds. Senior Cory Sims topped the team with seven assists, and sophomore Zach Pancratz provided three big three pointers.

“We shot the basketball well for the second game in a row from the field and from the three-point line,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “We were out-rebounded 31-21, and that’s something we have to still get better at — 13 offensive rebounds is just too high.”

One thing the Huskies felt they did well was work as a team.

“I can’t do it alone, it’s just that simple,” Hughes said. “My teammates got me the ball and I try to reward them.”

the game once again showed the Huskies’ resilience.

“When things don’t go our way in a game we bounce back from it,” the forward said. “One thing we really do is to find a way to win.”