Men’s basketball: Keshawn Williams scores 21 but NIU falls to Buffalo

In the first of two meetings within three days, the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team dropped a 79-68 decision to Buffalo Thursday at the NIU Convocation Center.

Keshawn Williams scored a team-high 21 points while Adong Makuoi added 12 points.

“Buffalo is a really good team,” NIU head coach Rashon Burno said. “We had our chances in the first half, we had a bad two minutes that was reminiscent of the last two minutes of the first half against Eastern Michigan. (Buffalo) puts you in bad situations because of their size, they are a very experienced team. They shot 25 free throws and we shot nine, that puts you in a situation where your margin of error is slim, and you have to continue to make shots to stay in the game.

“Our guys competed, we cut it to seven, with the chance to cut it to five on the front end of a one-and-one with about three minutes to go, but we didn’t execute a couple things down the stretch and Buffalo did.”

The Bulls’ lead grew to as much as 16 just past the midway point of the second half, but the Huskies (8-19, 5-12) clawed their way back into the contest.

Makuoi scored the next four to trim the lead for Buffalo (18-8, 12-4) back to a dozen, 62-50, with just under eight minutes remaining. After a Buffalo basket push the Bulls’ lead to 14, NIU answered with the next six as Keshawn Williams, Makuoi and Hunter all scored to cut Buffalo’s lead to 64-56 with 5:48 to play.

The Huskies were within seven, 71-64, after a dunk by Makuoi with 2:41 left and had a chance to get closer from the free-throw line after a defensive stop. NIU missed the front end of the one-and-one however and Buffalo would score the next seven to put the game out of reach.

NIU and Buffalo will meet again in Western New York on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 26. Game time in Buffalo is scheduled for 1 p.m. and will be available on ESPN3.