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DeKALB, Ill. ? In a battle for first place in the Mid-American Conference West Division, host Northern Illinois couldn't miss as they took a one-and-a-half game lead over Western Michigan with an 86-60 win. In front of their second largest home crowd of the season, 2,612, the Huskies (13-7, 8-4 MAC) hit 33-of-55 (60%) shots, including 10-of-15 from behind the three-point line, to snap the Broncos five-game winning streak (9-12, 6-5 MAC).

“I didn't think we played bad defensively,” head coach Steve Hawkins said. “I just thought Northern Illinois played a tremendous basketball game. When we forced tough shots and had a hand in their face, they hit the bucket. It was just one of those nights and you've got to give credit to Northern Illinois.”

As an example of the type of night NIU had, sophomore guard Ryan Paradise had hit only 5-of-16 three-pointers all season before going a perfect 5-of-5 against the Broncos in the first half.

The Broncos tried to counter the Huskies hot-shooting by getting to the foul line. The Brown and Gold hit 25-of-35 freebies, both season-highs, but couldn't overcome 17-of-54 (31.5%) shooting from the field.

Joe Reitz led the Broncos with 23 points, his sixth 20-point game of the season and seventh of his career, on 7-of-15 shooting from the field and 9-of-11 at the foul line. Stane's Bufford added 10 points. Andrew Hershberger just missed a double-double with eight points and nine rebounds.

Paradise led four Huskies in double figures with 15 points followed by 13 from Todd Peterson, 12 from Mike McKinney and 11 from Ben Rand.

The Broncos, still firmly entrenched in second place in the MAC West, return to the road Wednesday night at Akron (16-5, 9-2 MAC) at 7 p.m. and host Ohio (13-6, 7-4 MAC) next Sunday at 2 p.m. to wrap up their crossover games against the MAC East.