Box Score
Season Stats
DeKALB, Ill. ? Mike McKinney hit a runner with six seconds remaining to lift Northern Illinois to victory, 70-68, over Western Michigan in front of 1,601 at the Convocation Center in the Mid-American Conference opener for both teams.
Western Michigan (5-9, 0-1 MAC) had a chance, but Michael Redell's three-pointer at the buzzer was no, allowing Northern Illinois (4-9, 1-0 MAC) to snap its nine-game losing streak.
Joe Reitz had another stellar game for the Broncos with 28 points and 10 rebounds, his fifth double-double of the season and 14th of his career. Reitz' 11th career 20-point game leaves him only two points shy of 1,000 for his career. He also converted on 8-of-12 free throws to move into 10th all-time in made free throws with 302.
Reitz dominated the reigning MAC Defensive Player of the Year, NIU 6-foot-11 senior center James Hughes. Hughes was held to only two points and one rebound in 24 minutes and had no blocked shots, despite leading the MAC in that category entering the game.
Western Michigan took control in the first half by jumping out to a 10-point lead, 20-10, with 8:33 to go on an Andre Ricks' three-pointer. The Huskies came back to half the lead, but WMU went back up nine, 29-20, on a Reitz layup with 2:42 remaining.
Northern Illinois responded with a pair of three-pointers before Derek Fracalossi hit a layup over Hughes to give the Broncos a 33-26 halftime cushion.
The Huskies showed early in the second half that they would not be going away by scoring eight of the first 10 points to pull within one, 35-34, less than two and a half minutes into the second half. NIU tied the game moments later, 40-40, on a three-pointer by Zach Pancratz.
The three-pointer was crucial to NIU's comeback as they hit 8-of-11 in the second half, while WMU countered by converting on 17-of-20 second half free throws.
Northern Illinois could not take the lead and WMU extended its lead back up to six points, 64-58, on two Reitz free throws with 4:16 to go. Northern Illinois answered with the next seven points to take its first lead, 65-64, of the game with 1:58 remaining.
Western Michigan answered back with a Fracalossi layup and Reitz free throw to go up two, before McKinney regained the lead for NIU with a three-pointer.
The Broncos had a chance to take the lead on their next possession as Redell got up on a backdoor cut and was fouled. He converted 1-of-2 to tie the game before McKinney's winner.
Fracalossi finished with 10 points as the only other Bronco in double figures. David Kool hit a pair of free throws to increase his streak of consecutive free throws to 25, tied for fifth all-time in school history.
WMU outrebounded yet another opponent, 30-28, and saw its bench dominate again by outscoring the Huskies, 23-6.
McKinney led Northern Illinois with a career-high 28 points. Shaun Logan and Pancratz added 14 and 12 points, each.
Western Michigan is back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m. against Ball State (4-10, 0-1 MAC) at University Arena.
QUOTES
WMU head coach Steve Hawkins
(On the game) “They shot the ball very well in the second half. We didn't do a very good job of handling their ballscreens. They were only shooting 34 percent from three and they go 12-of-22 today. They looked more like last year's Northern team than they looked like this year's Northern team. We just didn't get it done.
“We showed some patience, we cut down on some turnovers, but we still didn't play with enough confidence offensively. We were able to keep fighting. We were right there at the end of the game, we just couldn't get key stops when we needed to get the stops.”
(On the end of the game) “We had no more timeouts. We got the backdoor, Mike Redell had it. We got decent help and McKinney hit a tough shot. We wanted to get the ball inbounds quickly. Mike got the ball up the court, had a good look at the rim and he got hit on the shot, it didn't get called.”
(On Joe Reitz) “Joe was Joe. He did as much as he could. He fought every inch of the way. Joe's a warrior and we got the ball inside to him and he converted for us.”
