NIU men's basketball: Defense helps Huskies stop Western Michigan, head to Cleveland

DeKALB – Like it had done all season, the Northern Illinois men's basketball team found a way to win at home – now it needs to find a way to win three games in Cleveland.

Playing without one of their best players, the No. 7 seed Huskies used a dominating defense to propel themselves to a 56-50 win over No. 10 Western Michigan in the first round of the Mid-American Conference tournament on Monday night in the NIU Convocation Center – improving to 18-1 at home on the season.

"They've been very supportive, we've had great crowds this year," said Northern Illinois coach Mark Montgomery, who even grabbed a microphone immediately after the game to address the crowd of 1,594. "I would have liked to have been (19-0), we'd probably already be in Cleveland resting, but credit the guys. It's no given when you're at home. You still have to earn it."

The Huskies (21-11 overall) advance to play No. 2 Ohio at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

In the win over Western Michigan on Monday, senior Travon Baker scored a game-high 18 points on 5 for 15 shooting but had a critical stretch in the second half in which he scored seven straight points for the Huskies. After the Broncos (13-19 overall) tied it 42-42 after a 3-point play by Tucker Haymond (17 points) with 5:35 left, Baker answered with a 3-pointer on the top of the arc and the Huskies led the rest of the way.

"Travon Baker made probably the biggest three in a long time to put us up three," Montgomery said of Baker, who followed that three up with a pair of free throws and a jumper.

The Huskies were without starting sophomore big man Marin Maric (12.3 points, 8.5 rebounds per game) for the second consecutive game, but have won both contests. Montgomery said the Huskies missed Maric's physical play in the post against the Broncos, but said he will likely be in the lineup against the Bobcats on Thursday.

Northern Illinois freshman post Levi Bradley had a double-double off the bench with 13 points and 12 rebounds and junior guard Aaric Armstead added 12 points and made a pair of critical free throws down the stretch.

The Huskies led 49-47 with 37 seconds left in the game and around 26 on the shot clock and Western Michigan coach Steve Hawkins elected to foul Armstead and extend the game by forcing Northern Illinois to shoot free throws the rest of the way. They finished 7 for 8 from the free-throw line in the final 33 seconds.

"There was about a 12 second differential in the clock, I think it was, and so do we foul right away or do we let it go down?" Hawkins said. "If they score – that's a really bad time to have. You're in between what to do and what not to do. That's one of the worst time differences you can have when you're down two."

Western Michigan sophomore guard Thomas Wilder, who came into the game leading the conference with an average of 20.4 points per game in MAC play, finished 0 for 6 with no points in 12 minutes and didn't play in the second half. Hawkins said that Wilder was suffering from turf toe and re-aggravated it during the game against the Huskies.

The 56 points by Northern Illinois was the fewest it scored in a conference, but it's also the second-fewest Western Michigan scored against a MAC team.

"No game is ugly when you win," Montgomery said. "We pride ourselves in defense and rebounding and we decided to rebound in the second and I think we defended good enough to win the game. With it being March madness, it's one of those, you can bend but don't break."

After losing 12 of 13 meeting against Western Michigan, the Huskies have now won two straight against the Broncos – both in DeKalb.

"You win enough games during conference play to get a home game during conference (tournament), that's big," Montgomery said.