Myles Newman had taken over offensively for DeKalb in a game in which points were at a premium.

But his block of a Xander Lewis shot with 1:13 left helped seal a 39-37 win for DeKalb against Sycamore on Friday at the NIU Convocation Center, the Barbs’ fifth straight win in the series.

“It feels great to be a Barb,” Newman said. “I always dreamed of being able to do this my senior season. We had to take this moment and drive for greatness.”

Sycamore (17-4) trailed 25-17 in the third but a layup by Lewis gave the Spartans a 28-25 lead at the end of the quarter.

Newman, whose 3-pointer staked the Barbs (9-14) to that eight-point lead, hit another 3-pointer to tie things up. He scored nine of the Barbs’ first 11 points in the fourth quarter as they took a 36-34 lead with 1:29 left.

But with the Spartans looking to tie, Newman blocked Lewis’ shot, DeKalb’s Derrion Straughter got the rebound and pushed the outlet pass ahead to an open Aaron Ziga for an easy layup.

“I haven’t got a block like that since kindergarten,” Newman said. “It felt good to be able to get that and then for Aaron to get a bucket to seal the game.”

Marcus Johnson, who finished with a team-best 14 points for Sycamore, splashed home a 3-pointer with 38.7 seconds left to cut the DeKalb lead to 38-37. Then Lewis came up with his third steal of the game - the first two led to two easy layups at the other end.

This time, with fouls to give, DeKalb was able to run some time off the clock. Sycamore ran its play with 10.7 seconds left. Johnson drove into the paint, his floater rimmed out, the Spartans couldn’t control the rebounds and the Barbs held on for the win.

“We were trying to get two feet in the paint and just trust our kids,” Sycamore coach Ethan Franklin said. “Marcus had a look and it just didn’t go in.”

The Spartans were averaging more than 70 points per game, but only managed 14 points at halftime. Isaiah Feuerbach entered Friday averaging 19 points per game. He scored five.

Sycamore missed its first seven free throw attempts in the game until Johnson closed the third quarter going 6-for-6. The team didn’t get to the line in the fourth.

“I just wanted to see the heart of a Barb, and that’s what we had,” DeKalb coach Mike Reynolds said. “That’s what we had. We fought our tails off and you hold a team to 37 points you ought to win. Usually you win by more than two.”

Johnson had seven rebounds for Sycamore and Josiah Mitchell added five.

For DeKalb, Newman finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Straughter had 10 rebounds and three steals.

“It was a fun night,” Reynolds said. “We just had to be willing to lay it all on the line defensively. That’s how we win. It’s not pretty. It’s ugly. But at the end, we don’t care who scores, we don’t care about any of that. Just get one more point.”