With 3:25 left in the second half, NIU men’s basketball coach Rob Judson yelled to his team, “Eight points!”

After being down by as many as 17 points, NIU was on a 9-0 run, and Judson had started counting down.

Two free throws by Cory Sims extended NIU’s run to 11-0 and made Judson yell “six” with the score 78-72.

But no number lower than six was yelled for the rest of the night as host Buffalo managed to hang on Tuesday night for a 86-80 win.

The loss was the Huskies’ sixth in their last eight games and fifth straight on the road.

“Our team is resilient and shows a lot of grit,” Judson said, “and we are putting ourselves in a position to steal a win. We just haven’t done it yet.”

Sophomore guard Mike McKinney and junior forward Todd Peterson paced NIU with 19 and 18 points, respectively. Buffalo (11-5 overall, 4-4 MAC) had five players of its own in double digits.

Despite a slow start, NIU (7-10, 3-6) shot 62 percent and put 46 points on the board in the first half; its highest first-half point total of the season.

Unfortunately for the Huskies, the Bulls also put up their highest first-half total of the season – 51.

Buffalo came out in the second half with a 20-8 run, spurred by four straight three-pointers, to go up 71-54 and NIU never recovered.