EMU Uses Furious Second-Half Comeback to Down NIU

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YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) — A furious second-half comeback propelled the Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team to a 48-45 win over a visiting Northern Illinois University team here Wednesday, Feb. 22, in a Mid-American Conference game in the Convocation Center.

Trailing by 13, 39-26, with 11:49 left in the game, the Eagles went on a 15-0 run to take a 41-39 with 3:08 and the home team never relinquished that advantage, posting the three-point win.

With the win, Head Coach Rob Murphy's Eagles, now 7-6 in the MAC West and 12-16 overall, kept their lock on first place in the West Division.

The loss drops NIU to 3-23 overall and 2-11 in league action.

Senior guard Darrell Lampley (Linden, N.J.-Linden-Lakeland C.C.) led the Eagles with 21 points to go along with four rebounds, five assists and three steals. Junior guard Derek Thompson (Detroit, Mich.-Melvindale-SEMO) added 10 points. Sophomore center Da'Shonte Riley (Detroit, Mich.-Country Day-Syracuse) had six points with six rebounds.

NIU had two players, Abdel Nader and Tony Nixon, with 10 points each.

Eastern connected on 13-of-41 field goals for 31.7 percent and the Eagles made 17-of-24 free throws for 70.8 percent. The Eagles forced 17 NIU turnovers, but lost the rebounding battle, 42-28.

Northern Illinois shot just 30 percent, making 15-of-50 field goals and just 4-of-21 three-point attempts for 19.0 percent.

Eastern opened up with a 3-0 lead to start the game and pushed it to three, 7-4, with 11:54 on the clock when Lampley connected on a long triple.

The visitors would come back to take several two-point leads in the first half, the last two with 1:54 left on two free throws by Tony Nixon to make it 22-20.

Lampley would finish the first-half scoring at the 1:29 mark on a long two-point field goal to knot the game at 22-all.

Lampley and Thompson each had eight in the first half for the Eagles while Nixon led NIU with seven.

Eastern finished the first half shooing just 31.8 percent, making 7-of-22 field goals while NIU was not much better, making 8-of-25 for 32 percent. Northern held a 20-14 edge on the boards.

Northern started the second half with a 6-0 run, on two jumpers by Bader and a layup by Bolin to go up, 28-22.

After Lampley halted the NIU streak with two free throws, the Huskies ran off four more points to take the game's biggest lead, a nine-point advantage at the 15:52 mark.

The Huskies would go to the long back, with Antone Christian hitting two threes, to increase their lead to 13, 39-26, at the 11:49 mark of the second half.

Eastern would have a quick answer to that NIU run out, scoring 15 unanswered points to take a 41-39 lead with 3:08 left, on two free throws by Lampley.

Northern would finally break a nine-minute drought on a free throw by Kevin Gray to cut the EMU lead to one, 41-40.

Eastern would then go up by four, 44-40, on a triple by Antonio Green (Inkster, Mich.-Dearborn Heights Robichaud) with just 2:19 left.

NIU would cut it back to one, 44-43, with 1:21 left on an Aksel Bolin tip, but Matt Balkema (Roseville, Mich.-Warren Cousino) would sink two free throws just 32 seconds later for a 46-43 EMU lead with 49.6 left on the clock and the Eagles would hold on for the 48-45 win.

The Eagles will stay home Saturday, Feb. 25, for a 4:30 p.m. MAC West tilt against the Ball State University Cardinals.

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Team Stats

Darrell Lampley

Derek Thompson

Da'Shonte Riley

Antonio Green

Eastern Michigan Athletics