Jan. 19, 2008

Box Score

Central Michigan 77, Northern Illinois 63 in PDF Format

Mount Pleasant, Mich.  - The old nemeses of the Northern Illinois men's basketball squad reared its ugly head against Central Michigan on Saturday evening, as the Huskies committed 23 turnovers and sent the Chippewas to the free throw line 41 times as CMU earned the 77-63 Mid-American Conference victory at Rose Arena.

Central Michigan scored 22 points off of the Huskie miscues and converted 78.0% (32-of-41) of their attempts from the charity stripe.

"The 23 turnovers is disheartening," NIU head coach Ricardo Patton said. "I don't believe they were forced, but just careless mistakes on our part."

CMU senior guard Giordan Watson scored a game-high 29 points, including five three-pointers, while teammate Chris Kellerman added 14 points in the victory.

With the victory, Central Michigan improves to 7-9 overall and 2-2 in MAC play, while the Huskies fall to 4-12 on the season and 1-3 in conference action.

NIU freshman guard Darion Anderson (Chicago, Ill./Carver Military Academy) topped the Huskies with 22 points off of the bench, while junior forward Sean Smith (Gary, Ind./Westside/Vincennes J.C.) collected 10 points in the loss.

The Huskies enjoyed a sizeable advantage on the boards, as NIU collected 38 caroms, including 15 of the offensive variety, to CMU's 29.

Northern Illinois is back in action on Tuesday (Jan. 22), as the Huskies welcome the Ball State Cardinals to the NIU Convocation Center for a 7 p.m. (CST) tip-off.

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