The score may not have looked pretty, but no matter what way Central Michigan fans tried to look at it, the scoreboard still read 49-43 — Huskies win.

The game marked the first time since Jan. 22, 1991, that NIU won a game scoring under 50 points.

“The margin of victory is irrelevant,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “This was a very difficult place to play, and it was a great victory for us.”

With the win, the NIU men’s basketball team improved overall to 11-7 and 5-4 in the MAC, while CMU dropped to 3-14 with a MAC record of 1-8.

Center James Hughes lead the Huskies with 12 points in the game, while junior guard Mike McKinney added 11 more points in the abnormally low scoring contest.

Todd Peterson provided another 8 points in the Huskies win, and claimed a spot in the NIU record books.

The senior guard came into Thursday night’s game with 204 career three pointers; tying him with assistant coach Donald Whiteside for most three pointers in a career. Peterson nabbed two treys in the Huskies win, moving him to the number one in the NIU’s 101-year old basketball program.

While there were a few offensive stars, as a whole the Huskies continued to struggle shooting. The team only made 17 of 48 shots, as the offense produced a total field goal percentage on 35.4 percent.

The Huskies weren’t alone in their offensive struggle though, as the Chippewas shot just 32.7 percent from the floor.

“Both teams played games Tuesday night and are on one day of rest,” Judson said. “Both teams were tired and you saw that in our free throw shooting.”

NIU struggled late in the game to make free throws as they went 7-17 in the second half and ended the night shooting only 50 percent from the line — well below the team average of 74.2 percent.

CMU on the other hand had no problem making their free shots as they sunk 72.7 percent. Problem was, the Chippewas had trouble finding their way to the line as they only shot 11 free throws.

“This was a gut check for NIU; it was a big character step for this team,” Judson said. “To slug it out with a team that wanted a victory badly at their home court meant a lot to our guys.”

The Huskies played strong defensively as they out rebounded the Chippewas 38-35 on the boards and shut down CMU’s leading scorer Sefton Barrett.

The junior guard, who is averaging 12.8 points per game, was limited to only two points in the entire night.

“We were aware of Watson and Barrett,” Judson said. “We didn’t double team in the post because we didn’t want to open any outside shooting for them.”

With the win, the Huskies won’t get much rest as they head back on the road Sunday for a 1 p.m. game at Eastern Michigan.

The Eagles will be in search of their first win in the MAC as they are 0-8 in the conference and 3-13 overall.