Before Saturday’s game against conference rival Wisconsin- Green Bay, head coach Brian Hammel let his senior leader Randy Fens be aware of the fact that he has not beaten the Phoenix, the only team he has not beaten in the conference in his four years at NIU. Hammel was just anxious to see how his center would respond to the Green Bay jinx.

“It’s not a jinx,” said Fens. “I look at it as more of a challenge.”

Whatever coach Hammel said to Fens must have been helpful as Fens met the challenge of Green Bay’s past dominance by scoring a season-high 18 points and pulling down a season-high 16 rebounds in the Huskies 53-50 victory.

“I wanted to take the step forward. I was in the zone the whole game and I just couldn’t wait for the game to get over with,” said Fens.

“He played a giant of a game against a much taller ball club,” said Hammel. “This was a big win for our seniors Fens and (David) Mitchell.”

Mitchell did not score in Saturday’s game, but grabbed three rebounds including two on the offensive in only 16 minutes of play.

But Fens was just the man to beat as he took Green Bay out of its game by denying the Phoenix good inside position.

“We wanted to put our biggest body against Fens and (Jeff) Zavada just could not block him out,” said Green Bay head coach Dick Bennett.

Zavada, who is tied for fourth in the conference in field goal percentage and is the Phoenix’s leading scorer and rebounder, had only five points and two rebounds against Fens in only 10 minutes of play.

Although Fens had a giant game, the Green Bay jinx may have settled in early as he missed four consecutive free throws and watched his team trail by as many as 11 points with 10 minutes left in the game.

But Fens answered the challenge as he connected on four straight free throws in the last 31 seconds to preserve his team’s victory.

“My biggest challenge today was stepping to the line and trying to hit the free throws when we needed it.”

“When I grabbed the last rebound at the end of the game, it felt like the game was over, but I knew I had to still hit my free throws,” said Fens.