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The final minutes turned into a recurring nightmare for the Northern Illinois Huskies, a struggling team who played all 40 minutes to the hilt Tuesday night, making it clear that the one word on their minds was "upset."

But by the time they left Millett Hall, they had "Peavy" on the brain.

Nathan Peavy scored a team-high 19 points, grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, blocked two shots, scored the game's biggest basket and then made the defensive play of the night to lead the Miami RedHawks past the Huskies 62-59.

"I thought Peavy got back a little bit to where he should be," Miami coach Charlie Coles said of his 6-foot-8 senior forward, who had been in a slight scoring slump recently. "Not all the way, but he made some big plays."

The victory was Miami's fourth in the last five games and raised its record to 9-11 overall, 5-3 in the Mid-American Conference.

The three P's

Peavy, Tim Pollitz, Doug Penno. They were a hard group to stop Tuesday.

Pollitz, one of the hottest players around despite the fact that he's getting injections in his knee to keep the bones there from grinding to pieces, totaled 18 points and six rebounds. He has averaged 21 points over Miami's last four games.

"I just took my second injection right after the game," Pollitz said. "I can't worry about a knee problem now. I've got to help the team ... (the injection) is to loosen it up in there so it's not bone-on-bone."

Senior guard Doug Penno added nine points, drilled two critical 3-point baskets in the final five minutes and teamed with Peavy for the game's most crucial basket.

It came with1:50 remaining and Miami trailing 57-56.

Penno threw up a lob pass, Peavy caught it near the backboard and gently laid it through the rim, giving the RedHawks the lead for good.

"It's a pretty easy play to get against the zone because they were so focused on the ball," Penno said.

"If I put it anywhere in the area, it's pretty easy."

"We really don't practice it that much," Peavy said.

"(Penno) just knows to throw it up and I'll catch it. We have that confidence."

Making a senior play

Peavy and NIU's Quintan Lipkins traded free throws, and with 14 seconds remaining the Huskies had the ball with a one-point deficit.

Senior guard Mike McKinney brought the ball upcourt and then quickly slashed his way toward the basket.

Coles was asked what he was thinking at that time.

"That we're going to lose, I'm thinking that," he said. "I'm thinking we're going to foul with two seconds on the clock."

As McKinney steered his body toward the lane, Peavy got in his way and stayed there. McKinney put up an awkward shot from several feet away, there was no foul, and McKinney's shot had no chance.

"Coach said to help out on defense," Peavy said, "but I thought to myself, 'That's my responsibility, I'm the senior.'"

Pollitz sank two free throws with 1.3 seconds left, and a long desperation pass by NIU was intercepted by — of course — Peavy.

McKinney finished with a game-high 20 points for the Huskies, who lost their seventh straight to fall to 4-16, 1-7 MAC.

Looking ahead

The RedHawks will try to make it five wins in six games Saturday night when they face Western Michigan at Millett Hall at 7:30 ... It was announced Tuesday that Miami would play at Indiana State on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 2:05 p.m. as part of the O'Reilly ESPNU Bracket Buster. It will be the fourth straight year Miami has faced a Missouri Valley Conference team in the event. Indiana State is 11-9 overall, 4-6 in the MVC ... The starting time for Miami's home game against Buffalo on Saturday, Feb. 24 has been changed to 2:30 p.m. (or 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Miami vs. Kent State women's game).