Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
Northern Illinois
Eagles Record 65-61 Road Win at NIU
1/16/2008 10:41:59 PM | Men's Basketball
Jarrod Axon leads the Eagles with career-best 23 points
Box score.
DeKALB, Ill, — The Eastern Michigan University men’s basketball team kept its hold on a piece of the Mid-American Conference West Division lead with a thrilling 65-61 win over Northern Illinois University here Wednesday night in a divisional game played in the NIU Convocation Center.
The Eagles built a double-digit lead in the second half and then held off a furious NIU comeback that saw the Huskies get as close as three, 54-51, with 4:26 left. NIU would get no closer, however, as the Eagles built their advantage back to seven, 62-58, with just 1:25 left when senior guard Jarred Axon (Jackson, Mich.-Jackson-Schoolcraft C.C.) hit a three-point field goal. NIU would cut the final margin to four on a three-point field goal by Shaun Logan with just 2.2 seconds left.
Axon connected on a career-best seven three-point field goals to also break his single-game scoring best with 23 points. Center Justin Dobbins (Cleveland, Ohio-Glennville) added 11, and guards Carlos Medlock (Detroit, Mich.-Murray Wright) and Jesse Bunkley (Detroit, Mich.-CMA-Mott C.C.) added 10 apiece. Sean Smith paced the Huskies with 15.
The Eagles, now 6-9 overall and 2-1 in MAC action, connected on 22-of-50 field-goal attempts for 44 percent and the Eagles made 11-of-27 triples for 40.7 percent. NIU, now 4-11 overall and 1-2 in the MAC, made 22-of-52 shots from the field for 42.3 percent and the Eagles once again won the battle of the boards, 36-28.
NIU opened the game with a three-point field goal by Shaun Logan and the Eagles came right back with a jumper by Bunkley. The teams traded baskets through the next several minutes before Eastern took its first lead, 11-10, on a lay-up by Nenad Banjanin (Belgrade, Serbia-Lon Morris J.C.).
The lead would be short lived as the Huskies raced back on the next play to go up two on a lay-up and free throw by Sean Smith with 10:42 on the clock.
The two teams would trade leads through the next several minutes before Dobbins scored on a lay-up with 7:04 left to give EMU a 21-20 advantage. That lead would seesaw the rest of the half.
The Eagles attempted to put an exclamation point on the first half with an alley-oop dunk by Will Cooper (Detroit, Mich.-Pershing-Bridgton Academy) off a lob by Axon, but the Huskies matched that effort on a Michael Hart-dunk at the buzzer, giving NIU a 34-33 halftime lead.
Axon led the Eagles through the first 20 minutes with 17 points, 15 coming off 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the three-point arc. Smith paced the Huskies with 11. Eastern hit 11-of-25 field goals (44.0 percent) to NIU’s 48.1 percent (13-of-27) and the Eagles held an 18-11 edge in rebounding in the first half.
The second half started with a flurry by Dobbins, who hit the first six EMU points as the Eagles slowly built a seven-point lead at 45-38 with 12:32 on the clock. Eastern would go up 10, 51-41, with 9:55 left on a three-point field goal by Bunkley.
Eastern would built its lead to 11, 54-43, with 7:58 remaining before the Huskies roared back with eight unanswered points to cut the margin to three, 54-51.
