After 42 days and 10 straight losses, the NIU men’s basketball team finally won a game, defeating the MAC’s No. 4 team Miami-Ohio 62-54 Wednesday night at the Convocation Center.

One more loss would have tied an NIU record for the longest losing streak, set by the 1975-’76 team.

NIU coach Rob Judson walked straight across the court after the final buzzer, triumphantly pumping his fist.

“Last year when we won 10 of 11 games and I received a lot of e-mails from people telling me what we are doing wrong with the team,” Judson said. “And this was winning 10 of 11. During this stretch, I can’t tell you how many positive letters we got. I’m very happy for our fans.”

NIU went into halftime with a 33-23 lead behind 14 first-half points from 6-foot-6 senior Marcus Smallwood (see Page 19).

With 3:54 remaining in the game, the RedHawks (15-9 overall, 10-5 MAC) cut their deficit to two points on a pair of free throws by Chet Mason (15 points, 11 rebounds). However, NIU (8-18, 3-12) quickly turned the momentum when Mike McKinney tossed an alley-oop to 6-foot-10 James Hughes.

“I thought we got them back a little bit, but that alley-oop to James Hughes just killed us,” Miami coach Charlie Coles said.

After a defensive stop, the Huskies came back down and Perry Smith swished a three pointer from the wing. Smith had not made a three-pointer in the game prior to that, and was 1-of-7 shooting from the field.

“[Perry] has the ability to be great if he wants to be,” said Walter Thompson, who started at point guard. “That was a critical part of the game and [Perry] came through for us, and that’s his job.”

NIU had been averaging 64 percent from the free-throw line prior to Wednesday when they hit 20-of-25 attempts.

Coles was impressed most with Smallwood, but thought McKinney and Hughes also had notable performances.

A 6-foot-3 freshman guard, McKinney finished with 12 points, four rebounds and three assists. Hughes broke his freshman NIU record with six blocks and altered many more shots, Coles said.

“McKinney really hurt us,” said the eighth-year Miami coach. “We knew he had talent.

“Hughes is going to be a really, really good player.”