YPSILANTI, Mich. – Junior Tyson Acuff scored 31 points for the Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team in the Eagles 69-62 victory over Cleveland State University, Saturday, Nov. 18, inside the George Gervin GameAbove Center.

Acuff netted 17 first-half points on a 6-for-6 start from the field while junior Julius Ellerbe and junior Yusuf Jihad each tallied 10 points.

After playing to a 13-13 tie, Eastern Michigan went on a 7-0 run with 13:26 left in the first half, culminating in a three from Acuff, to take a 20-13 lead. The Eagles then surrendered that lead and entered halftime down 32-29.

After intermission, Eastern Michigan managed to gain control and had a 54-53 lead before going on a 7-0 run, finished off by redshirt junior John McGriff's (Glenn Dale, Md./Bishop McNamara/Binghamton) jumper, to grow the lead to 61-53 with 4:48 to go in the contest. The Vikings narrowed the margin somewhat before the game was over, but the Eagles still cruised the rest of the way for the 69-62 win. Eastern Michigan got a boost from its bench in the period, as non-starters accounted for 18 of its 40 total points.

ATLANTA, Ga. – Five players scored in double figures, led by a career-high 21 points from Xavier Amos as the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team topped Little Rock, 98-93, on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 18) to clinch the Capitol Challenge. The Huskies built a lead of as much as 20 in the first half before holding off a second half charge from the Trojans. 

With the victory, NIU moves to 4-1 on the season, its best five-game start since the 2015-16 season. David Coit scored 20 points with eight rebounds and six assists, Philmon Gebrewhit had a career-best 19 points and six assists, Zarique Nutter added 16 points and seven rebounds while Yanic Konan Niederhauser scored a career-high 15 points. 

"It was a tale of two halves," said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. "We were up 18 (at halftime) and the dangerous part of being up 18, especially with a relatively young team, is I didn't know if we had enough, especially coming off a grueling game on Friday. I'm happy, but we didn't do a good job of managing the bench, (Zarique) Nutter and (David) Coit's (minutes) were too high, but it is a learning experience and I love teaching through winning."

The Huskies shot 58.3 percent (28-of-48) from the field in the contest, including 56.3 percent (9-of-16) from three-point range, and went 33-of-44 (75 percent) from the free-throw line. 

NIU jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the opening four minutes as Konan Niederhauser scored the first four of the contest, Nutter added the next four and Gebrewhit converted at the rim to give the Huskies an early double-digit lead. 

After a free throw by Little Rock, NIU added the next six on a dunk by Will Lovings-Watts  and free throws from Coit and Zion Russell, as NIU led 16-1 with 13:11 to play in the half. 

The first field goal of the contest for Little Rock came with 12:06 to play before halftime as the Trojans knocked in a triple. Each of Little Rock's first four baskets came from behind the arc as they trimmed the NIU lead to as little as seven, 24-17, just past the midway point of the half. 

Amos then caught fire from deep for the Huskies, knocking in four first half triples, the last of which extended the NIU lead to 44-26 with 5:20 to play before the intermission. Gebrewhit added a bucket as the Huskies extended their lead to 20, the largest of the half.

Little Rock cut the NIU advantage down to just 13 with a little over a minute left before the intermission but a pair of free throws from Gebrewhit and an old-fashioned three-point play by Nutter gave the Huskies a 58-40 lead at halftime. 

Konan Niederhauser led all scorers with 13 points in the opening 20 minutes, Amos added a dozen while Gebrewhit and Nutter each scored 10. NIU shot 62.1 percent (18-of-29) from the field in the half and went 17-of-22 (77.3 percent) from the free-throw line. 

Little Rock (1-2) cut the Huskie lead to 62-48 early in the second half before a triple from Coit and a pair of free throws by Nutter pushed NIU's advantage back to 19 with 16:42 to play. 

The Trojans responded with an 11-1 run as they cut the Huskie advantage to 68-59 with just under 13 minutes remaining. Nutter and Gebrewhit answered with layups for NIU as the Huskie lead grew back to 13. 

A 13-4 run by Little Rock brought the Trojans within three, 83-80, before NIU scored six of the next seven to go in front 89-81 with 3:53 left. 

The Trojans came back with the next five to pull within three, 89-86, but once again NIU had the answer as a triple by Coit and a pair of free throws from Gebrewhit increased the advantage to eight, 94-86, with 2:14 left. 

Little Rock climbed back to within three twice more, at 95-92 and 96-93, but each time the Huskies had an answer to hold off the Trojans as NIU earned its fourth victory of the season. 

DeAntoni Gordon led Little Rock with 26 points, KK Robinson added 20 for the Trojans and Pavle Kuzmanovic chipped in 15 points. 

NIU's four-game road trip continues next Saturday, Nov. 25, when the Huskies make the short trip to Chicago to face DePaul at Wintrust Arena. Tipoff between the Huskies and Blue Demons is scheduled for 8 p.m. and will be televised on Fox Sports 2. 

Boxscore
ATHENS, Ohio – The Ohio men's basketball team (2-1) defeated Detroit Mercy (0-4), 71-52, inside the Convocation Center on Saturday, Nov. 18. The 19-point win was Ohio's largest over Detroit Mercy since it last defeated the Titans in 2019. It was also the largest point differential for Ohio since it beat Bowling Green in early March of last season.  

Ohio earned a quick boost of confidence in the first half after junior AJ Clayton (Roseville, Ohio) knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to give his team a permanent lead. Clayton lead the team in scoring with 18 points and shot 6-for-7 from the field and 2-for-2 from the line. It was Clayton's third game in a row with double-digit points.

Right behind Clayton was senior guard Jaylin Hunter, who reached 1,000 career points during the second half. His magic number came on a breakaway dunk with an assist from redshirt sophomore Ike Cornish (Baltimore, Md.). Hunter also snagged a single-game high in rebounds with 10 to mark his first career double-double. 

"Honestly, it didn't hit me until I looked at the jumbotron and they said I had 1,000 points," Hunter said. "The first thing that went to my mind was just like how thankful I am for my teammates, transferring to Ohio and just meeting such a great group group of guys and coaches to help me be successful."

Two other Bobcats reached milestones on Saturday. Cornish's 12 points marked a new single-game high for the first-year Bobcat. He shot 4-for-9 from the field and went 2-for-2 at the line. Also, redshirt sophomore Ben Estis (Southlake, Texas) played in his first game and went 1-for-2 from the line.  

The Bobcats paired their sharp shooting with tenacious defense to secure the win. Their goal was to keep the Titan's leading scorer, Jayden Stone, out of scoring range. 

"He really hurt us last year. With the games that he's had already this year, we wanted to try to make it as difficult as possible for him to be a high volume shooter and a low volume scorer and to hold him to a 4-for-17 and 3-for-14," Boals said. "It was multiple guys. They did a lot of handoffs and ball screens, so we switched a lot to try to make him work and earn it. 23 is a really good player, (Edoardo) Del Cadia. To hold him 3-for-11 I thought our defense was really really good."

Ohio forced Del Cadia into six turnovers and Detroit Mercy into 15 overall. Transition had been a major focus for Ohio over the past three games, and defensive rebounds helped it improve upon that. Of Ohio's 42 total rebounds on Saturday, 31 were defensive. 

The strong defense allowed Ohio to maintain at least a seven-point lead throughout the entire second half. It even worked its way up to a 22-point lead with just under two minutes to go.

The win helped the Bobcats get over .500 and gave them the juice they need before heading to Nassau, The Bahamas for the Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship. Ohio is set to take on George Washington at 7 p.m. on Nov. 24.