Two hundred eighty-two rushing yards and three touchdowns weren’t good enough for NIU tailback Michael Turner Saturday night at Huskie Stadium.

In the Huskies’ 29-26 loss to Western Illinois, Turner put up the fourth-best rushing day in the history of NIU football. His 282 yards also tied for the eighth-highest rushing total by a MAC runner. However, after Turner racked up 262 yards in three quarters, the Leathernecks held the North Chicago native to 20 yards on seven carries in the final frame. The Huskies’ offense failed to put up any points in the fourth quarter as WIU came back from a 26-22 deficit.

NIU coach Joe Novak said Turner’s conditioning played a role in Turner’s fourth quarter struggles.

“Mike’s not in great shape,” Novak said. “He has a bad hamstring, and he doesn’t quite have the conditioning that we’d like him to.”

Turner put the Huskies up 7-0 with 2:28 left in the first quarter as he took a Josh Haldi handoff two yards to paydirt.

The 5-foot-10, 223-pound Turner ran for 27 yards in the first quarter, but he was just warming up. He racked up 120 yards on eight carries in the second quarter, including a 82-yard touchdown jaunt.

“You just hold your breath every time and hope you have him contained every time he touches the ball,” WIU coach Don Patterson said. “You can see why [NIU] would want to get him the ball as much as they can.”

After the Huskies took over at their own 20-yard line to start the second half, Turner picked up right where he left off, running for 15 yards on the first snap and finding the end zone from 65 yards out on the next.

In the third quarter, Turner ran for 115 yards on eight carries, but the fourth quarter didn’t treat him as well.

Turner was disappointed the Huskies couldn’t come up with a big play to stick the nail in WIU’s coffin.

“We just couldn’t put them away,” Turner said. “They made some good adjustments on defense.”