NIU men lose tournament opener to Kent State

The No. 7 seed Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team was unable to overcome a slow start offensively as the Huskies fell to No. 2 seed Kent State, 76-57, on Thursday in the Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.

Zarique Nutter led the way for the Huskies (13-19) with 13 points.

Anthony Crump and David Coit each added 10 points, Harvin Ibarguen scored eight points with a career-high 11 rebounds and Kaleb Thornton finished with seven points and six assists.

“Today was a disappointing loss,” NIU head coach Rashon Burno said of his team falling down 21-7. “For the first four minutes, we didn’t have the intention and aggression that is needed to play in this magnitude of a game. We chased from there on out. We scored the first two and then it was an uphill climb.

“Take our hats off to Kent State, they executed in the first half. If you look at the numbers, they shot 42 percent (from the field) and 16 percent (from 3). If we execute a little bit better… we had too many live ball turnovers that got them out (on the break) early. Just disappointed that we didn’t play our best version of basketball as a team to start.”