Twice the ball left Jonathan Amos’ hands and twice it touched nothing but nylon.

With 3.9 seconds left NIU (9-7 overall, 4-4 MAC) held a 66-65 lead with Toledo inbounding the ball from underneath the Huskies’ basket. But before the Rockets even got a chance to inbound the ball, a whistle on NIU’s Mike McKinney sent Amos to the free throw line.

The first free throw tied the game up. The second gave Toledo (9-7, 2-6) the lead. And after Cory Sims’ last second shot missed its mark, the Rockets took home the 67-66 win.

“That was a difficult ending to a game,” NIU men’s basketball coach Rob Judson said. “Those last 25 seconds were just a shadowing of the game. We missed a free throw, and they hit a three.

“Then those free throws at the end were very clutch.”

Judson felt his team looked to be in good position to win the game, holding a four-point lead with just those 25 seconds left.

But UT’s Justin Ingram wasn’t about to just give NIU the win. After a missed free throw the junior ran up the court and hit a three pointer from the top of the arc to cut the lead to one with 18 seconds on the clock.

Then when Ryan Paradise’s free throw missed, Ingram grabbed the rebound and started sprinting toward NIU’s basket. His lay up missed and after a few more missed put backs, the ball went out of bounds leaving just 3.9 seconds left.

On the in bounds play, Amos tried to run around a screen when a whistle stopped everything and the referee called a holding call on McKinney.

“He was holding me so I kind of flopped and yelled,” said Amos. “And I got the call.”

The freshman, who averages 3.2 points per game, tied his season high of 10 points with those game-winning free throws.

“I just erased the crowd,” said the Dallas native. “I felt like I was deaf. And I just made them like I would in practice.”

Despite the loss, the Huskies did a lot of positive things throughout the game, Judson said.

After two straight cold shooting nights, the Huskies shot 65 percent for the game and out-scored the Rockets 42 to 16 in the paint.

McKinney and James Hughes led the Huskies with 15 points while Ben Rand had 11 points off the bench.

But in the end it wasn’t enough to hold off Toledo’s hot shooting from beyond the three point arch.