It’s no accident the NIU men’s basketball team has just one player averaging at least 10 points per game. In fact, it’s just the way Huskies’ coach Rob Judson likes it.

“This group is not going to have a guy who scores 25 points every game,” Judson said. “The strength of this team is that we’ve had eight different leading scorers throughout the season.”

Judson’s team faced the type of scorer they don’t have, Kent State’s Jay Youngblood, on Saturday. The senior guard is the fifth-highest scorer in the MAC, averaging 15.5 points per game.

In the KSU victory, the guard produced 27 points in 36 minutes – 37.5 percent of the Golden Flashes’ offensive production.

Kent State coach Jim Christian felt Youngblood’s performance could be summed up by an offensive rebound put back and a jump shot along the baseline.

“What [those shots] did was gave us more energy down the stretch defensively,” Christian said. “Those two plays did that for us. You could see our team’s body language was different after those shots.”

Youngblood did more than provide his team with two plays in the Kent State victory. The Detroit Michigan native went 10-16 from the field and was 5-5 from the free throw line.

Youngblood also became the go-to-guy down the stretch as the Huskies tried to make a comeback. NIU reduced the Kent State lead to five at the 7:34 mark, but the KSU leader sparked a 10-0 run in which he scored eight points.

“I want [the ball] because coach has faith in me,” the 6-foot-6 guard said. “Whenever I see coach wants me to do something I go out there and try my hardest to do it, because I have faith in myself that I’ll make the play.”

Judson knew beforehand it was going to take solid defensive principles on the part of the Huskies to shut down Youngblood.

“We played zone for a few positions to try and eliminate his drive and they hit a couple threes against the zones,” the fifth-year coach said. “There are a lot of awful good players in our league, but [Youngblood] was hard to guard today.”

This was the sixth time in the season Youngblood tallied 20-plus points. Additionally, Youngblood provided the Golden Flashes with six rebounds, three steals, a block and an assist in the victory over the Huskies.

“This is my last year playing college basketball,” the senior said. “I just knew this was a big year.”