Northern brought a five-game losing streak, a 2-10 record and a 27.7 3-point percentage to Oxford, but put together a solid all-around performance. The Huskies shot 48.8 percent from the field and 80.8 percent from the line while winning the battle of the boards 27-24.
NIU hasn’t had a winning season since the 2005-06 campaign.
“We have a young and hungry group,” Montgomery said. “Young guys for some reason forget real quick that they haven’t won. It’s a little different generation. I think when I played, you remembered when you lost. The new generation, they kind of forget the next day and get going, which could be good and could be bad a little bit.
“What I like is they come with a lot of energy and effort at every practice, and that’s the main thing when you’re building. We’re trying to change the culture of what it was there to what it is now, and it usually starts in practice for us.”
Miami was just 6 of 21 beyond the arc. The RedHawks also racked up 18 turnovers and managed only nine assists, five by Quinten Rollins.
“Anytime you have nine assists and 18 turnovers, you better be darn good to get away with that,” MU coach John Cooper said. “
A lack of energy: Cooper didn't like the look in his players' eyes right before the game, and his gut feeling proved to be correct. His take:
“When we were sitting getting ready to go out for introductions, I looked at our guys sitting on the bench and I looked at (Rollins) and said, ‘We need to be ready.’ I don’t ever say anything to them when they’re about to be introduced. But I looked at our guys and our energy level, and it didn’t look right to me. We started off the game, and just different small little things (indicated) to me that we’re probably not ready to play.
“We were picked dead last in the preseason, and teams know it. We can’t come in with a chip on our shoulder like, ‘Hey, we can just show up.’ It doesn’t work for us. We’re not good enough for that. We’ve got to be prepared to execute and play with passion and energy, and in many cases we’ve got to create that on our own.”
Technically speaking: The Huskies managed to win with two technical fouls and an ejection in the second half.
NIU’s Keith Gray and Miami’s Drew McGhee had an altercation with 12:07 remaining that resulted in a double technical. Keith Gray came off the bench during that incident and was sent to the locker room.
Thirty-four seconds later, Northern’s Daveon Balls got hit with a ‘T.’ Jon Harris missed both free throws for MU.
The RedHawks were 10 of 17 at the line after intermission, 13 of 22 overall.
“We missed a lot of free throws that I think we needed down the line,” Miami forward Will Felder said. “A lot of possessions that we needed stops, we didn’t get them, so it’s like we weren’t getting anything on the offensive end and then giving up on the defensive end. That’ll make you lose.”
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