This contest had much of the same aspects as NIU men’s basketball’s 87-75 loss to Central Michigan on Saturday: fans yelling at coaches, coaches yelling at refs and players yelling at each other talking trash.

The only difference is that everyone had a smile on his or her face while doing all of the above during the third annual NIU basketball alumni game.

Set three hours before the NIU-CMU game, the alumni game went down to the wire, with Team Cardinal pulling ahead over Team Black 73-71 on a 15-foot jumper by Ephraim Eaddy (1998-’00) with 0.8 seconds left.

One of the more recent NIU graduates, Eaddy finished with 10 points. Huskie graduates dated as far back as Willie Hanson, who finished at NIU in 1967.

Donnell Thomas (1987-’91) was the leading scorer with 24 points, and he garnered MVP honors for the victors.

“I’m still in a little bit of shape,” Thomas said, while noting not everyone else was.

A 6-foot-4 strongly built forward, Thomas is fresh off playing oversees for the past 11 years. Playing in a total of seven different countries, he took off playing this year to work with the Chicago Bulls Training Academy. With all of his travels, this was Thomas’ first time seeing the new Convocation Center.

“This is the house that ’91 built,” Thomas joked. “It’s a great facility, and the team is doing great this year.”

From the NIU basketball team, assistant coaches and Huskie graduates Donald Whiteside (1987-’91) and Carl Armato (1981-’84) both finished with 15 points for Team Black. Leading Team Black was Brad Waller (1982-’85) with 18 points.

Complimenting Eaddy and Thomas from Team Cardinal was Paul Dawkins (1975-’79) with 17 points.

“It’s great coming back here,” Matt Hicks (1974-’77) said. “There are guys like Paul Dawkins that I haven’t seen in 25 years. The new arena is great. The lobby is probably bigger than the whole fieldhouse.”

Team Cardinal’s Kenny Battle (1984-’86) was tabbed as the “King of the 360s” when he played with the Huskies. But on Saturday, Battle’s game, like most playing in the game, focused more on skills than aerial abilities.

“I can still get up there, but I’m 38 going on 39,” Battle said. “I can’t worry about the 360s anymore.”