Sycamores lose opener

The Sycamore men's basketball team began the 2008-09 season Tuesday evening with a loss to the Huskies of Northern Illinois 86-79.

Junior guard Rashad Reed made his presence known in his regular-season debut as a Sycamore, scoring 21 points. He mainly used his five-for-eight shooting from behind the three-point line to propel his score. Overall, he was seven-for-12 from the field. Reed also played longer than any other Sycamore player as he played 34 minutes.

The Huskies had two scorers over 20 points, however: sophomore guard Darion Anderson with 27 and freshman guard Mike DiNunno with 21 points. Those two players shot 18 of the Huskies' 20 shots from behind the three-point line. They each had four assists.

Sycamore sophomore guard Aaron Carter with 15 points, senior forward/ center Jay Tunnell with 14 and junior forward/ center Josh Crawford with 13 points were the other double-digit scorers for ISU.

Tunnell led the team in rebounding with seven boards. Freshman guard Carl Richard and Crawford both pulled down six rebounds.

The Sycamores outblocked their opponent five to two, but when the Huskies shot a 55 percent clip from behind the three-point line, the blocks made little difference in the outcome of the game.

The Sycamores committed 15 turnovers during the game. The Sycamores, however, outshot the Huskies from the field with a 52.8 percent clip from the field in comparison to NIU's 41.9 percent shooting. The Huskies gained nine points at the free-throw line as they shot 35 from the charity stripe, making 23 of them, while the Sycamores shot 22 from the line, making 14 of them.

With the win, NIU improves to 2-1 for the season. The Sycamore return to action at 2 p.m. Sunday at Hulman Center against North Texas, which is the first home game of the regular season for ISU.

( Ben Corn is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at sasspted@isugw.indstate.edu.)