Andy Greer feared that his basketball team would have a mental lapse against Akron.

Unfortunately, he was right as the Huskies continued their slide against the Zips, losing 103-75. NIU held the 16-point lead against Central Michigan Saturday and lost 81-74.

“This is a classic case of a hangover from Saturday,” Greer said. “I did not see this coming. There was no energy or focus from us. This is the first time in a long time that we did not show any emotion at home. I was hoping this was not going to happen.”

After taking the early 9-7 lead in the first half, the Huskies were not able to contain the hot shooting from Akron. The Zips went on a 15-0 run in five minutes to take the 29-12 lead and never relinquished the lead.

The Huskies did not have an answer for the 3-point shooting of the Zips, who went 15-22 from 3-point land. David Falknor, who scored 12 of the first 13 points in the second half, hit all six of his 3-pointers in the second half, while Emmanuel Smith hit five of the eight 3-point attempts.

“If you shoot it like that, then there isn’t too much to talk about other than that,” said Akron coach Dan Hipsher. “We were able to keep the ball moving. Once they got into a scramble we were able to penetrate to the basket. When you are down 18, 20 points, you have to scramble on defense. We took quick shots, but we made them.”

Greer said the Huskies started using a man-to-man defense, then switched to a zone. When he realized that wasn’t working, he switched to a triangle defense.

“When you don’t play hard and don’t play with a desire and commitment to stop people then it doesn’t make a difference what your in, people are going to beat you and that’s what happened tonight,” Greer said.