A youthful NIU basketball team saw its early lead slowly disappear in a 63-56 loss Saturday at Loyola’s Gentile Center.

The Huskies broke out to a 21-8 lead in their first regular-season game but allowed Loyola an 11-1 scoring run late in the first half.

“We played an excellent 12 minutes and a good first half, but we need to do that for 40 minutes,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “In the second half, Loyola just got too many second-chance baskets.”

NIU was also out-rebounded 42-25 and gave up 21 second-chance points.

We’ve got to get tougher on the glass,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “We have got to rebound the basketball much better than we did today. Rebounding was the difference in this game.”

Despite Loyola’s late charge in the first half, NIU still held a 30-27 advantage going into the locker room. In the second half, NIU shot 28 percent (7-of-25) from the field.

“We are disappointed with the loss, but there are some things we can take from this game,” Judson said. “Three of our top shooters [Todd Peterson, Anthony Maestranzi and Paige Paulsen] went 1-of-10 from the floor, yet we were in position to win that game.”

The two teams battled for much of the second half, exchanging the lead five times.

“Even with our low shooting in the second half, it was a close basketball game,” Judson said. “It was back and forth. We’ll just have to learn from it.”

Guard Zach Pancratz became the first NIU freshman to play 30-plus minutes since Kenny Battle in 1983. He finished with eight points and five rebounds in 35 minutes.

Mike McKinney led the Huskies with 13 points. Johnathan Byrd and Cory Sims scored 11 and 10 points, respectively.

“I was pleased with play of Johnathan Byrd,” Judson said. “He was very active offensively in the post and Cory Sims, for his first game, made some plays for this team.”