The Falcon men’s basketball team got a much-needed victory on Tuesday night, defeating the Northern Illinois Huskies by a score of 66-57. The team was paced offensively in a big way by junior forward Demajeo Wiggins who had 15 total points and 15 total baskets. The Falcons now sit at 11-5 and 2-1 in the MAC.
“I thought (Demajeo Wiggins) did really good on both ends of the floor,” Falcons head coach Michael Huger said. “He got a little tired; 36 minutes is probably too much for him. We’ve got to figure out a way to cut that down some, but I thought he was very good. We had a discussion earlier in the week about rebounding, and I thought he responded in a big way tonight.”
The Falcons had a strong lead after a half of play which saw them head into the locker room up 33-19, but a strong comeback effort in the second quarter by the Huskies, who even came within one point of the Falcons, made things difficult.
“We had 18 turnovers that caused their transition buckets, so once we turned it over, they are deadly in transition,” Huger said. “They were able to go down and score in transition and get back into the game. We have to take care of the ball, especially at the end of the game. The one thing that saved us towards the end was we had dead ball turnovers and not live ball turnovers when they can go down and score in transition before the defense is set. We had dead ball turnovers where it went out of bounds, and we were able to set our defense. That was the thing that kind of saved us at the end.”
Wiggins did not shoulder the load alone, as freshman guard Justin Turner managed 14 points, two assists and two steals in the game.
A big reason Northern Illinois was able to fight back was their ability to take advantage of the Falcons’ struggles in transition defense.
“We were able to get stops; we let those guys loose in transition,” Huger said. “We gave them what they do best and thats how they got the lead cut to one, but we were able to hit some big shots down the stretch. Justin Turner hit a big three out of the corner. Matt Fox hit a big three from the top. We were able to really pull it off at the end. We gotta find a way to be able to finish teams when we get them down, so thats the thing for us.”
The Falcons next game will pit them against the Akron Zips on Saturday afternoon.
