Kokomo, Ind. -- The Indiana University Northwest Men's Basketball team played well on the road against No. 13 Indiana University Kokomo and almost pulled off the upset but the RedHawks were unable to come up with the victory Friday. The Cougars (12-2) defeated the RedHawks (10-5), 86-81, at Cougar Gymnasium.  

Both teams traded early leads back-and-forth early in the first half. Martellian Gibson (Rantoul, Ill.) converted a huge and-one which tied the game at 19-all with 12:38 left.

The Cougars then took control of the rest of the half. IUK outscored IUN 16-4 the next seven minutes to go ahead 37-23 before Rashad Richardson (Lafayette, Ind./Lafayette Jeff) ended the drought to make it 37-25 with 4:24 left in game.

The rest of the half both teams scored the same amount of points back and forth. The RedHawks closed out the half scoring the last five points after a basket by Chris Robinson (Indianapolis, Ind./Pike) and a three-pointer by Jason Peace (Indianapolis, Ind.). 

IUK led 45-35 at the halftime break.  The Cougars scored the first three baskets of the second half for their biggest lead of the night which was 16 (51-35). 

IUK went ahead 61-45 then IUN made a 19-6 run after a three-pointer by Marshaud Watkins (Harvey, Ill.) to make it 67-64 Cougars with 9:09 left in the game. After the Cougars scored the next four points the RedHawks kept it within three points after scoring the next four. 

IUN was able to make it a two-point game after Gibson hit a jumper which made it 74-72 with 4:06 left in the game.  Unfortunately that was the closest the RedHawks got the rest of the way.

The Cougars went on a 6-1 run the next two minutes to make it 80-73 with under two minutes left. IUK held off IUN the rest of the way as the Cougars won 86-81.

Robinson had a huge breakout game for IUN as the freshman scored 23 points. Richardson had a double-double for IUN as the senior had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Gibson also had a big game for the RedHawks recording double figures as the junior added 12. Peace was able to reach double digits in scoring as the junior added 10 points to round out the IUN leaders.

IUN Men's Basketball heads to Holiday Break now as the RedHawks return to action Saturday, January 4 in a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference road contest against Governors State starting at 3 p.m. CT.