CSNbbs

Mike McKinney looked very good. He was agressive and took good shots. Zach Pancratz did very well too. He made quite a few three pointers. Ben Rand wasn't as agressive as when he was healthy but i'm sure that will come in due time. James Hughes blocked at least one shot that i noticed, he took a couple good fallback jumpers. We did really well on defensive rebounding. Overall, we had to of shot at least 70% from three-point land. We made a lot of three-pointers. Ryan Paradise had a three and took a couple good shots. Bristan Kelley looked good defensively. None of the new guys impressed me very much. Lipkins had a three-pointer and was a bit agressive. We shot pretty well from the free-throw line (75%+). Overall, it was a good game defensively and rebounding. I think our guys need to move around a bit more when on offense. We unloaded a lot of our bench with about 10 minutes left in the 2nd half. Judson let McKinney, Rand, Pancratz, and Paradise get a lot of time. Final score was 78-47.

A little background info on the University of St. Francis (USF):
- They play in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and compete in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC).
- USF finished 14-14 overall last season.
- USF ended 5th place (out of 7) in their conference last season with a 5-7 record.

Stats:

NIU:

3-pointers: 9-11 (81.8%)
FG %: 55.6%
FT %: 69.2%
Rebs: 38 (11 offensive; 27 defensive)
Blocks: 4
TO: 18
Stl: 5


USF:

3-pointers: 6-17 (35.3%)
FG %: 31.3%
FT %: 52.4%
Rebs: 23 (11 offensive; 12 defensive)
Blocks: 0
TO: 18
Stl: 10


We outrebounded them by 16. We outblocked them by 4. Every offensive statistic was obviously a lot better than their's. Both teams did horrible turning over the ball too much.

NIU Men's Basketball Cruises Past St. Francis (Ill.), 77-47, In Exhibition Opener

Quote:Nov. 9, 2006

Box Score

DeKalb, Ill. - Northern Illinois guards Mike McKinney (Evanston, Ill.) and Zach Pancratz (Schaumburg, Ill.) combined to shoot 10-for-12 from the field and 4-for-4 from beyond three-point range, as the Huskies cruised to the 77-47 exhibition victory over St. Francis (Ill.) at the NIU Convocation Center on Thursday night.

McKinney finished with a game-high 18 points, while Pancratz was perfect from the field, going 6-for-6, including a pair of treys, for 14 points. Junior guard Ryan Paradise (Naperville, Ill.) tallied 11 points, including three treys. That trio combined to knock down 7-of-8 of their three-point attempts. For the game, NIU shot 81.8% (9-for-11) from beyond the arc.

"We have some guys on this team who can shoot the ball and when we don't turn it over, we can be a potent offense," NIU head coach Rob Judson said. "We have guys that can shoot well and going 4-for-4 [from 3] like Zack and Mike did tonight, that's a pretty good night.

St. Francis guard Mike Smith led the Saints with 16 points, while DeMario Edwards came off the bench to score 11 points.

NIU opens the regular-season on Wednesday, November 15th, as they welcome St. Mary's (MN) to the Convocation Center for a 7 p.m. tip-off. Season tickets for the men's basketball team are currently on sale through the Huskie Athletics Ticket Office in the Convocation Center, on-line at http://www.niuhuskies.com, or by calling Ticketmaster at 312-559-1212. Season tickets for the men are just $109. For more information on season or individual game tickets, or to access the basketball schedules, call the NIU Athletics Ticket Office at 815-752-6800 or go on-line at http://www.niuhuskies.com.