NIU basketball roundup: Short-handed men fall to Ohio while women knockoff Miami

NIU men

Ohio 78, NIU 66: At Athens, the Huskies were without Yanic Konan Niederhauser and Zarique Nutter in the loss.

Both Niederhauser and Nutter were hurt Tuesday in a 73-51 home loss to Akron. The Huskies (6-8 overall, 0-2 MAC) are also without Keshawn Williams, who has now missed the last six games after re-injuring his knee which kept him out since January 2023 until mid-December.

Xavier Amos scored 22, David Coit scored 17 and Philmon Gebrewhit added 14.

The Huskies led by three at halftime but the Bobcats scored 14 of the first 17 points in the second half to go ahead for good.

“We talked about being better in the first four minutes (of the second half) than we have been, but we let Ohio go on a big run to start the half,” NIU head coach Rashon Burno said. “Our inability to execute, we played hard but we are undermanned right now, we are playing guys extended minutes, and our bench hasn’t really been productive. In the first half we competed but our Achilles heel has been coming out of halftime, Ohio got off to a quick start, we didn’t get stops and didn’t execute.”

The Huskies haven’t beaten and NCAA Division I opponent since an 89-79 win at DePaul on Nov. 25.

NIU women

NIU 58, Miami 48: At DeKalb, the Huskies scored 15 of the last 17 points for the victory.

“The response from Wednesday’s game was exactly what we needed,” head coach Lisa Carlsen said. “Our defensive intensity was better. Our work on the glass was better. We had talked about that over the last couple days, learning from the last game and putting into practice in today’s game.”

Jayden Marable led all players with 15 points as the Huskies (7-6, 1-1) won for the fourth time in five days. Marable also added six rebounds, two assists and three steals. Brooke Stonebreaker added seven points, a team-best eight rebounds and three steals.

NIU was up 12 at halftime, but Miami (2-10, 0-2) led 46-43 in the fourth.

“We had to stay composed,” Marable said about NIU’s fourth-quarter comeback. “They [Miami} started to press in the second half and we knew we had to take care of the ball. We got shots that we wanted and didn’t let them speed us up.”