The NIU men’s basketball team held Eastern Michigan scoreless in the final 2 minutes 50 seconds to defeat the Eagles 58-52 on Wednesday night.

The win is only the Huskies’ third of the season and their second in the Mid-American Conference.

NIU had only a one-point lead with 1:25 left in the game when Stephen Jones drove in for a lay-up to put the Huskies (3-11 overall, 2-3 MAC) up for good, 55-52. The senior guard finished with seven points and 10 rebounds.

NIU interim coach Andy Greer said the play was designed so Jones could streak inside the middle and put the nail in Eastern Michigan’s coffin.

Eagles coach John Boone said he was so worried about guarding NIU junior forward Leon Rodgers that he forgot about Jones. Rodgers finished with a game-high 21 points and grabbed 9 boards. The Eagles are 2-12, 0-5.

“If we were able to stop Jones, we would have probably taken over the game,” Boone said. “We weren’t able to get a drive going and score. Those are the type of plays that you have to make to win, and they did that.”

Greer promised the Jones he saw against Eastern Michigan would not be the same player at the end of the year.

“I don’t think we have seen the Steve Jones that we will see later on in the season,” he said. “Practice is a little different from the actual game. Steve can give a little more on the defensive side. He ended up with 10 rebounds, and that is something that he can do. Steve Jones should average 10 rebounds a game for us.”

The Huskies took an 18-6 lead in the first half, when it looked like smooth sailing for NIU.

But the Eagles went on a 15-4 run to pull within one and eventually took the lead.

“It is a game of runs,” Boone said. “I don’t think we got tired after that run, seeing that it happened in the first half. We came out and we played really poor in the beginning of the first half.

“We played really well,” he continued. “I was pleased going into halftime that we were only down by one. Every time that we had a chance that we could have taken over the game, we made a critical error, or Leon Rodgers stepped and made a big play.”