Eastern Michigan Athletics
Eastern Michigan University
17-14 (8-8MAC)
Northern Illinois
10-20 (6-10MAC)
Eagles Make Dramatic Comeback in First-Round Win over NIU
3/7/2010 4:54:01 PM | Men's Basketball
The Eagles, the No. 6 seed for the tournament, are now 17-14 overall and will move on to play No. 3 seed Akron at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 11
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YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team used a dramatic second-half comeback here Sunday, March 7, in the first round of the FirstEnergy Mid-American Conference Tournament to advance to the quarterfinals in Cleveland, Ohio.
Trailing by as many as 14 points in the first half, the Eagles rallied to out-score Northern Illinois University, 57-37, over the game's final 30 minutes to record the 65-59 victory.
Eastern would come back to take its first lead since the 16:31 mark of the first half when Dobbins made the second of two free throw attempts for a 55-54 advantage with 5:11 left. Senior point guard Carlos Medlock (Detroit, Mich.-Murray Wright) would then hit two free throws after an NIU bench technical to make it 57-54, and the Eagles would keep the lead the rest of the way.
The Eagles, the No. 6 seed for the tournament, are now 17-14 overall and will move on to play No. 3 seed Akron at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 11, in Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
EMU redshirt junior forward Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo.-Taylor (Mich.) Truman) turned in his 15th double-double of the season and the 22nd of his career with 19 points and 12 rebounds while senior center Justin Dobbins (Cleveland, Ohio-Glenville) scored 13, Medlock scored 11 and junior wing Jay Higgins (Fayetteville, N.C.-IMG Academy-Hillsborough (Fla.) C.C.) added 10.
Northern was led by Xavier Silas with 20 with Sean Kowal adding 15.
EMU struggled on the offensive end early, but still managed to shoot 40.9 percent (18-of-44) for the game while shooting just 61 percent (25-of-41) from the line. Northern connected on 20-of-51 field goals for 39.2 percent and the Huskies dominated the rebound battle, 39-27.
Eastern jumped out to a 7-6 lead at the 16:31 mark, but the visitors spent the next six minutes out-scoring the Eagles, 16-1, to take a 14-point lead, 22-8, with 11:20 left in the half.
The Eastern offense awakened at that point and went on a 10-2 run of its won to cut Northern's lead to six, 24-18, with 5:06 remaining in the first half.
Both teams traded hoops the rest of the half with Northern heading to the lockerroom with a 29-23 advantage.
Bowdry led the Eagles with 11 first-half points while Silas paced the Huskies with 11. The Eagles shot just 25 percent in the first half, hitting 5-of-20 field-goal attempts while NIU was making 48 percent of its shots, making 12-of-25. EMU would hit 11-of-19 free throws in the first 20 minutes.
Northern came out of the halftime on fire, hitting its first two shots of the second half, the second a triple from the right corner by Silas that boosted its lead to 11, 34-23.
The Eagles responded to that challenge by getting consecutive threes from Quintin Dailey (Las Vegas, Nev.-Bishop Gorman-Sheridan (Wyo.) C.C.) and Higgins along with a Dobbins tip and a layup by Bowdry to close within one, 36-33, with 16 minutes left.
The Huskies would once again answer the call, raising its lead back to nine points, 45-36, with 12:41 left when Ante Dzepina hit two inside buckets.
