Head NIU men’s basketball coach Brian Hammel would just as soon forget his 100th career win.

“There’ll be no calls from the Hall of Fame for (tapes of Monday’s game) for their archives,” Hammel said.

Artistic merits aside, the Huskies triumphed 82-77 over the Western Illinois Leathernecks at Chick Evans Field House.

The win moves NIU to 9-13, 6-6 in the Mid-Continent Conference while Western Illinois drops to 7-13, 3-8.

It would be safe to say that Monday’s victory was one of the sloppier of Hammels’ 100 wins as a collegiate head coach—and, despite a stellar performance by Brian Molis, one of the most nerve-wracking.

The Huskies controlled most of the game until a late WIU comeback pulled the Leathernecks to within 78-75 with 1:45 left. NIU then turned the ball over but Mike Hidden caused a jump ball giving the Huskies possession. Marlin Simms and Hidden hit four free throws down the stretch to seal the win.

Molis led the way as he rebounded from a 1-for-16 shooting performance in a loss to Green Bay Saturday. Monday night, Molis shot 9-for-16 to tally a game-high 27 points.

“Saturday I couldn’t buy a basket … today the ball was falling,” Molis said.

The 6-4 senior hit his first three-pointer at the 15:10 mark of the opening half to give NIU a 12-7 lead. It turned out to be just a preview of things to come.

WIU made a 12-0 run to come within 51-49 midway through the second half. Hidden responded with a three, which was followed by a Molis tear.

Molis accounted for 14-straight NIU points to keep the Huskies in control. NIU overcame a sloppy (37 turnovers) performance by both teams to notch the win.

“It must be something about these two teams,” Hammel said. “The last time we played (a 71-66 NIU loss) it was a sloppy game.

The Huskies’ free throw shooting, by contrast, was decidedly not sloppy. NIU hit 20-of-22 charity tosses, including 14-of-15 in the second half.

“We did an excellent job on the foul line,” Hammel said. “We kept a (big) enough cushion to give us some breathing room.”

But the usually verbose Hammel didn’t have much to say about his milestone. “You don’t talk about your 100th loss,” he said with a smile. “So why talk about your 100th win?”