NIU coach Rob Judson was surprised to say the least after his team’s 67-61 upset win over MAC powerhouse Kent State on Saturday.

“I’m speechless,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “I don’t know what to say. I’m humbled. Our kids played so well. They played great defense, they made some big free throws, they got some big rebounds. I’m so happy for them and our staff. Our kids went out and executed. It is hard to describe when you go on the road and win a game like this.”

The Huskies (12-9, 8-3 MAC) continued their roll as they won for the eighth time in nine tries and improved to 6-0 on the road in the MAC. The loss was only the ninth for Kent State (17-3 10-2 MAC) in its last 77 home contests.

As the game drew to a close, the Huskies held a 63-58 lead after Marcus Smallwood, who had 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the floor, made one of two free throws. However, the Golden Flashes’ Anthony Wilkins came back and drilled a three-pointer to pull KSU within two.

After a few timeouts, KSU was forced to foul with only 13.1 left on the clock and that put the game in the hands of NIU freshman point guard Anthony Maestranzi.

As the crowd of 5,716 tried to rattle the freshman, Maestranzi calmly knocked down both free throws to put NIU up 65-61, sending the fans to the exits.

The Golden Flashes’ forward Antonio Gates, who was chosen preseason All-MAC, was held to 12 points and managed just eight shots. KSU guard Eric Haut led all scorers with 22 points.

Along with Maestranzi, freshman Todd Peterson was a key component in the Huskie win. Peterson scored a team-high 17 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. The Pekin native hit five three-pointers, including back-to-back threes to put the Huskies ahead 32-29 at the half, setting a new freshman record with 40 three-pointers in a season. Teammate Al Sewasciuk had the record of 36 in 2000-01.

“We overcame some early jitters and some other adversity,” Judson said. “What an atmosphere here. This is a big win for our players and our staff. We just wanted to contest [KSU’s] shots and box out on rebounds. We were able to win by making some shots at the end. We made some big free throws down the stretch to close the game out. Anthony Maestranzi stepped up and made two big free throws with the crowd going crazy to seal the victory.”

NIU, which shot 53.7 percent from the floor on Thursday against Buffalo, upped that mark to 56.8 percent against Kent State. In contrast, KSU shot a season-low 37.7 percent from the field, and as the nation’s best three-point shooting squad, managed to convert on only 9-of-31 from behind the arc.

Senior guard Jay Bates scored 14 points in his 24 minutes of action for the Huskies.

The game went back and forth, as KSU held advantages of 18-8 and 25-16 in the first half, before NIU outscored the hosts 16-4 the remainder of the half.

In the second half, the game saw five ties and NIU had a two-point lead three times in the final 7:31 of the game.