NIU men off to best start in 8 years: Daily Chronicle sports roundup for Saturday, Nov. 18

Men’s basketball

NIU 98, Little Rock 93: At Atlanta, Xavier Amos scored a career-best 21 points and the NIU men’s basketball team held off Little Rock (1-2) at the Capitol Challenge on Saturday, winning both games at the round-robin.

NIU moves to 4-1 on the year, its best start since the 2015-2016 season. David Coit added 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists in the win, Philmon Gebrewhit scored a career-best 19 points and six assists, Zarique Nutter had 16 points and seven rebounds while Yanic Konan Niderhauser scored 15.

The Huskies scored 16 of the first 17 points in the game and led by as much as 20 in the first half. Little Rock got to within three multiple times in the second half, including 96-93, but the Huskies held them off for the win.

NIU continues its road trip Nov. 25 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago against DePaul, then two days later plays at Northwestern.

Girls basketball

Kaneland 51, Burlington Central 49: At Burlington, Kendra Brown and Sam Kerry each scored 18 to lead the Knights (3-1) to a win in the silver bracket at Central’s tournament.

With the game tied and 30 seconds left, Kerry drove to the hoop to put Kaneland up. Emersyn Fry, who had tied the game on a 3-pointer a couple of minutes earlier, missed a three with 0.2 seconds left.

DeKalb 43, Auburn 34: At Burlington, Brytasi Long scored 15 points and Cayla Evans added nine as the Barbs (2-2) won the bronze pool.

Hinckley-Big Rock 50, Hiawatha 28: At Hinckley, the Royals got 15 points from Anna Herrman in the first game of a round-robin.

Raven Wagner and Sami Carlino each added nine for H-BR. Delaney Wood scored 13 for the Hawks.

Hiawatha 39, Westminster Christian 28: At Hinckley, Delaney Wood scored 23 for the Hawks.

Hinckley-Big Rock 85, Westminster Christian 27: At Hinckley, Anna Hermann scored 22 to power the Royals.

Raven Wagner, Mia Cotton and Georgia Allen each scored 11 while Grace Michaels had 10.

Genoa-Kingston 48, Oregon 25: At Oregon, the Cogs rolled behind 11 points from Ally Poegel.

Presley Meyer and Sydney Hansen each scored nine.