At Fort Myers, Florida, Keshawn Williams scored a game-high 28 points to lead the Northern Illinois men’s basketball team to an 86-61 victory over Long Island at the Rocket Mortgage Fort Myers Tip-Off.
David Coit scored 17 points, and Zarique Nutter added 10 for NIU (2-4). Oluwasegun Durosinmi grabbed a game-high and career-best 11 rebounds to go along with a career-high seven points, while Kaleb Thornton also had seven points and a career-best 11 assists.
“This is a good start to give our guys confidence that what we are working on can work and what we are doing does work,” NIU head coach Rashon Burno said in a news release. “We went in the locker room after the game [Tuesday] and had guys that had lost confidence in themselves. This was a game that was won on mental preparation. It had nothing to do with basketball, it had nothing to do with physicality, it was all about how we got ourselves back centered and got a belief back in what we are doing.”
BOYS BASKETBALL
Kaneland 58, Prairie Ridge 49: At Woodstock, Troyer Carlson had 21 points to lead the Knights to a Hoops for Healing tournament victory.
Parker Violett had 15 points, and Bradley Franck added eight.
Dundee-Crown 54, Sycamore 37: At Sycamore, the Spartans lost in Strombom Holiday Tournament action.
Jaxon Tierney led with nine points, Lucas Winburn had seven and Aidan Wyzard had six.
Aurora Christian 57, Genoa-Kingston 45: At Westminster Christian, the Cogs battled but fell during Elgin Tournament action.
Josh Bunting led with 16 points and Hayden Hodgson added 13.
Elgin 51, Indian Creek 34: At Westminster Christian, the Timberwolves fell during Elgin Tournament action.
Jeff Probst finished with 13 points and Logan Schrader added eight.
South Beloit 59, Hinckley-Big Rock 40: At Oregon, Martin Ledbetter scored 20 points but the Royals fell in nonconference action.
WRESTLING
At DeKalb: The DeKalb boys won three matches to open the season, beating Lake Park (82-0), Moline (64-12) and South Elgin (70-15).
Kaden Klapprodt, Jalen Airhart, Hudson Ikens, Aden Shuey, Mehki Cave, Jacob Luce, Sean Kolkebeck, David Stewart, Lamar Bradley and Emmerson Watson went undefeated on the day.
The DeKalb girls went 3-1 with wins over Moline, Dundee-Crown and Lake Park and a loss to Burlington Central.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/shawmedia/b945ae41-e0fd-42fd-805a-feca8401d740.png)