DeKALB – Making his first start of the year, Will Lovings-Watts scored more points than any Northern Illinois University freshman in almost six years, pouring in 23 as the Huskies knocked off Calumet College 92-48 on Monday.
The 6-foot-5 freshman guard from Jeffersonville, Indiana, said that head coach Rashon Burno and assistant coach Drew Gladstone have helped him succeed this year by telling him to keep his focus on the court. He was averaging 4.1 points per game entering Monday.
“I’m just trying to keep my head down and keep working,” Lovings-Watts said. “Coach Burno and coach Gladstone, they talk to me every day, tell me to be humble and keep my head down, and that’s what I try to do.”
Lovings-Watts scored 23 on Monday, the most by an NIU freshman since Eugene German’s 27 in February 2017.
Burno said Watts had a solid week of practices and was one of the two best players in the gym all week.
“For a freshman it takes time to understand what it takes to come in and be an everyday guy,” Burno said. “He’s had two months of seeing it now and being an everyday guy. He’s applying the knowledge he’s picking up. He’s uber-talented to where I think he can be an all-in guard.”
NIU hadn’t played in nine days, losing 74-71 at Monmouth on Dec. 5. The Huskies previously lost to Indiana State in DeKalb (90-67) and at Northwestern (89-67). They last won Nov. 25 at DePaul (89-79).
The Huskies (6-4) had second-half leads in all three games. On Monday, they led 58-17 against the Crimson Wave (3-9) at the break and outscored them by three in the second half.
“We just trust in our work we put in throughout the week,” said Zarique Nutter, who scored 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting to help the Huskies to their first win in almost a month. “We just trusted the work we put in throughout the week and executed our gameplan.”
Burno said a lot of the team’s late-game struggles come from inexperience. Nutter and David Coit, who scored 10 points on Monday, are the only two players who have experience in Burno’s system outside of the injured Keshawn Williams.
“When you get in these situations where you’re up 12, 13 points, a young team tends to rest and start worrying about ‘I’ instead of ‘we,’” Burno said. “Sometimes we get in harm’s way when we get a little bit selfish and I wanted to do something for the team, and the I takes away from we.”
Xavier Amos led NIU with 10 rebounds and added six points. Yanic Konan Niederhauser didn’t miss a shot all night, finishing with 13 points and four blocks. Sophomore transfer Quaran McPherson had a career-best 10 rebounds for the Huskies.
NIU will be back at home Thursday against Northern Iowa before a Dec. 29 game at Iowa.
“Granted the competition wasn’t what it was a couple weeks ago, but you still have to show up and play the right way,” Burno said. “So we’re going to watch film and get ready for a dangerous team on Thursday.”