Northern Illinois is winless no more. On Saturday night, in the final game of a three-game road trip, the Huskies stormed into UD Arena and left with an 81-76 win over Dayton in overtime. A 1-2 mark in Matt Majkrzak’s first three games as head coach wasn’t unexpected, but the win over the Flyers certainly was.
In each of its first two games, Northern Illinois played from behind. Within three minutes at Tulsa on Thursday, the Huskies were down double digits. On Monday against Grambling State, Majkrzak’s
squad never led, despite having a chance to win at the buzzer.
Saturday was a different story. Led by Max Weisbrod and David Douglas Jr., who have been the catalysts all week, Northern Illinois was the one with the early lead. With 11:11 to play in the first half, Weisbrod found Douglas for a 3-pointer, pushing the lead to double digits at 20-10. The triple also put Douglas at 11 points in the first 10 minutes of the game. He finished with a game-high 27 points.
Several minutes later, at the 3:57 mark in the first half, Weisbrod picked up another assist, this time to Nino Carter-Smith, who hit a 3-pointer and gave the Huskies’ their largest lead of the night at 35-18. Dayton would, however, respond with a run of its own. The Flyers cut the lead to single digits on an Aiden Derkack layup in the closing minute of the first half. Derkack had a team-high 20 points for Dayton.
Two free throws from Weisbord pushed the lead back to double digits, giving Northern Illinois a 40-29 lead at the break. Weisbrod finished with 19 points, six rebounds and eight assists, helping Northern Illinois log its third consecutive game with double-digit makes from downtown.
For the first time this season, the Huskies spent the second half defending a lead, but it didn’t get off to the start Majkrzak hoped. As the Northern Illinois offense went cold, Dayton cut the lead to one, opening the half on a 10-0 run with Dercack and Amaël L’Etang scoring six of the 10 points.
Finally, Douglas broke the second-half ice with a layup, giving the Huskies their first points of the frame nearly eight minutes in. Just two minutes later, a pair of free throws from Derkack gave the Flyers their first lead of the night at 46-45. Almost immediately, Douglas scored once again, regaining the lead for Northern Illinois. The lead grew to seven, but following a bucket from Landen Joseph with 5:26 to play, Dayton held the lead until the final seconds.
Down three, with the game on the line, Weisbrod became the hero for the Huskies. The fifth-year guard drew a switch, stepped back and drilled a game-tying 3-pointer with 13 seconds to play, forcing overtime.
In the bonus period, Northern Michigan transfer Bennett Basich was the shot in the arm the Huskies needed to finish the upset. Off of the bench, Basich scored seven of his nine points in overtime and converted on a pair of free throws to grow the Northern Illinois lead to 81-76 with less than five seconds remaining.
After the Huskies tipped off the season at 3 a.m. and lost a game they were favored to win, a winless week seemed like the most likely outcome. Instead they’ll return to DeKalb with a big-time win and sure of one thing: Matt Majkrzak has arrived.
