GEORGIA SOUTHERN 72, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 70
DES MOINES, IOWA --- The Georgia Southern men’s basketball team jumped out to a 19-5 lead in the first 10:35 but had to hold on to defeat Northern Illinois 72-70 Friday evening at the Knapp Center in Des Moines, Iowa.
Four GSU (5-2) players scored in double figures led by junior Matt Fields (Jacksonville, Fla.) who totaled a career-high 16 points, 14 of those coming in the second half. Fields also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.
Juniors Louis Graham (West Palm Beach, Fla.) and Dwayne Foreman (Apopka, Fla.) each had 12 points for the Eagles and senior Donte Gennie (Tallahassee, Fla.) added 11.
NIU’s (3-3) James Hughes also had a strong second half, pouring in 24 of his game-high 27 points in the final 20 minutes.
The Huskies took control early in the second half, quickly erasing a four-point halftime deficit, and a lay-up by Cody Yelder completed a 10-2 run to put Northern Illinois up 43-39.
NIU’s four-point bulge was the largest lead for either team in the second half until the final moments of the contest.
Fields and Hughes took over in the final six minutes. Starting with a lay-up at the six-minute mark, Fields scored 10 of the team’s next 13 points and Hughes recorded nine straight, as he hit three consecutive from the floor and went 3-for-3 from the foul line. His lay-in with 2:34 left in the contest tied the game for the 11th time at 2:34.
Fields wasted little time in answering, nailing a jumper seven seconds later and after a NIU turnover, put back a missed shot for a four-point lead (67-63).
Following a timeout, Ben Rand cut the margin to one with a 3-pointer and after another bucket from Fields, two Hughes free throws made the score 69-68 with 1:17 left. But Northern Illinois went over a minute without a point as Foreman and Tobias combined to put GSU up four, 72-68, with 10 seconds left.
Hughes scored the final points of the night with six ticks on the clock and despite a Georgia Southern turnover, a long-range effort from Rand was off the mark at the buzzer.
Northern Illinois, the nation’s top field goal shooting team, hit 49.1 percent of its shots but committed 28 turnovers and hit just 18.2 percent from 3-point range and 58.3 percent from the charity stripe.
The Eagles converted 44.1 percent from the floor for the contest.
Georgia Southern sprinted out of the gate and quickly led 19-5 behind six points from Foreman and five from Gennie.
Defensively, the Eagles held the Huskies to 15.4 percent (2-of-15) shooting from the floor and forced eight turnovers in the first nine minutes.
Down 26-14 with 7:47 left in the first half, the Huskies went to work on the deficit, going on a 14-4 run to close within two, 30-28 at the 3:27 mark.
GSU never relinquished the lead in the first half and was up 37-33 at the break.
Georgia Southern will face the winner of Drake/Troy tomorrow at either 5 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. CST.