2016 MAC Basketball Recap: Northern Illinois Huskies vs. Cal Poly Mustangs

When you boil a lobster, it dies slowly, not realizing that the water is getting hotter and hotter. That’s what the first half of this game was like.

Neither team played particularly terrible. Flawed to be sure, but not as awful as another NIU game a couple years ago. Eventually, after one too many bad shots and one too many turnovers, I realized the crap I was watching.

Noah McCarty, a freshman from Rock Falls, hit three mid range jumpers off the bench. The kid did well. He was the leading Husky scorer at the half, with 6 whole points, to give you an idea.

At the end of the first half, Cal Poly made a nice run, extending the lead to 10. That would be nice, except they had 31 points. No one should ever lead a d1 basketball game at the half with 31 points, certainly not by 10.

As I was banging my head on my desk, complaining I was forced to watch this garbage, another hustlebelter, Matty Hammon, reminded my of a game repressed into my memory long ago. While the game was crap, the recap was golden. While I should have been following the current game early in the second half, I was reading.

Lucky for me, the game finally heated up, and was tied 40-40 with ten minutes to go. As the teams battled, it became 51-51. A giant of a game had awoken, indeed.

Eventually Cal Poly got hot from 3 point land, and put the game away.

I am glad I didn’t off myself, as I had the thoughts of a few times in the first half. My reward was a great second half, where the Mustangs hit a few more threes to pull out the win.

Four Mustangs scored in double figures, led by Victor Joseph’s 19 off the bench. Josh Mishler had 10, again off the bench. His three with 2 minutes to go pretty much sealed the win for Cal Poly.

Marin Maric lead NIU in with 14 points. He probably could have had more, but was in foul trouble most of the game, with 2 early offensive fouls.