Down only two points at the half, the NIU men’s basketball team were blown away in the second half against Marshall, 75-57 on Saturday.

A career-high 17 points for Mike Morrison was not enough of an inside presence to hold off the Thundering Herd.

The Huskies found themselves trailing by only two points with 16 minutes to play. Marshall, however, followed it up with a 19-6 run to pull away early in the second half.

“I felt good at halftime about our effort in the first half,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “At 16 minutes we were down 43-41, and I felt the next five minutes would be critical.

“The next five minutes, [Marshall] went up 12. Offensively, we missed some shots that were pretty good looks, had a turnover or two that were sandwiched in there and they hit two threes. That was the stretch where the game was won.”

The Huskies shot just 8-28 in the second half, scoring 21 points to combat Marshall’s second half of 37 points on 14-28 shooting.

Marshall also responded in the second half committing only four turnovers as opposed to the 12 they committed in the first half.

“We were rather sloppy offensively [in the first half],” Marshall coach Greg White said. “They were able to get back in the game, even go ahead in the first half because of our sloppy handling of the basketball.”

Marshall’s backcourt of Monty Wright and Ronald Blackshear accounted for a combined 39 points to lead Marshall.

Blackshear, who came into the game averaging 22 points per game, scored 21 on 8-of-18 shooting as well as six rebounds and three assists. Wright added 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting. The pair also combined for five of Marshall’s nine three-pointers.

NIU out-rebounded Marshall 14-to-5 on the offensive glass which led to 12 second chance points for the Huskies.

Marcus Smallwood led NIU in rebounds with nine, and also amassed nine points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field.

“They did a good job on Marcus Smallwood,” Judson said. “Marcus is our warrior there in the post and they did a good job of limiting his looks at the basket by doubling him a lot when he got the ball.”

Anthony Maestranzi’s NIU school record of eight consecutive three-point shots was stopped on his first shot of the game. Maestranzi went on to finish 0-of-3 from three-point range but chipped in four assists.

Over winter break, the Huskies will play five of seven on the road with home games against UIC and Bowling Green, as well as road contests versus MAC opponents Toledo and Ball State.