The Saluki men’s basketball squad came out on top of what turned out to be a real dogfight Wednesday night, leaving DeKalb a 65-63 winner over Northern Illinois in SIUC’s regular season opener.

Saluki guard Jaratio Tucker answered the bell against the Huskies, scoring 20 points on 9-of-17 shooting and grabbing seven rebounds. Tucker was huge down the stretch, scoring 12 of his points in the second half and tallied six of the Dawgs’ last 10 points to ice the victory.

SIUC basketball coach Rich Herrin said he was pleased with Tucker and the way he played against NIU.

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Tuck was awfully tough down the stretch tonight, he said. He can make us pretty tough on offense. He really delivered tonight.

Guard Shane Hawkins and forward Scott Burzynski helped keep the Salukis in it for much of the game.

Hawkins (16 points), Burzynski (14 points) and Tucker combined to account for 50 of the Salukis’ 65 points.

After falling behind Northern 32-30 at halftime in an up and down battle, the Salukis came out firing.

Burzynski scored five quick points to put SIUC up 35-32, but the see-saw affair continued. NIU went on a 12-4 run that covered almost six minutes to give the Huskies a 47-41 lead with 12:20 to go in the game.

Northern Illinois was able to maintain it’s lead for the next several minutes, until the Dawgs clawed their way back.

With NIU ahead 57-51, Reggie Nelson hit two key shots to close the gap to 59-55. Tucker then hit two baskets of his own to tie the game at 61-61.

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After Tucker put the Dawgs ahead 65-63 with 2:02 remaining, Hawkins grabbed the rebound from an errant Northern Illinois shot and called a time out as he was falling out of bounds. The poor shot came as the result of the Salukis’ playing solid defense when it counted.

We defended them for about 12 seconds (on the last possession), Herrin said. We played them tough you’ve got to give us credit for that.

After turning the ball over with 7.7 seconds on the clock, NIU had one last chance to win the game, but a desperation shot missed and SIUC was victorious.

Although the Dawgs walked out of Evans Field House with the win, the Saluki shooting woes continued against the Huskies.

In the first half, SIUC went 9-for-29 against NIU including a 4-for-14 performance from behin the three-point line. The second half for SIUC was a bit better, as the Dawgs dropped in 15 of its 32 shots to finish the night at 39 percent.

Free throw shooting was the difference in the game, as both the Salukis and Huskies finished the night with identical 24-for-61 showings from the field.

SIUC shot 71 percent from the charity stripe, while NIU was only 31 percent from the free-throw line including a 1-for-5 effort in the second half.

The Huskies were led by forwards Jamal Robinson and Chris Coleman who scored 24 and 20 points respectively in the losing effort.

Herrin played 11 different players, but got only six points out of his bench something that he said was not that big a deal.

We’ll take any help we can get from the bench anytime we can right now, he said.

Herrin also said he is just happy to get the win, which extends the Dawgs’ win streak over NIU to seven games.

I’m glad to get the win, he said. We’ve had some success here and we’ll take the win any way we can get it.

The Salukis will take to the road once again and try and improve to 2-0 Saturday to take on Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va. at 6:35 p.m.