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2018 MAC Basketball Preview: Northern Illinois Huskies at Western Michigan Broncos

Which of these teams will get to 4-4 in MAC play?

NCAA Basketball: Puerto Rico Tip-Off-South Carolina vs Western Michigan Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

Saturday afternoon the Northern Illinois Huskies (10-10, 3-4 MAC) will travel to Kalamazoo to take on the Western Michigan Broncos (11-9, 3-4 MAC) in a fight to pull their conference record to .500.

NIU snapped a two game skid with a blowout victory over BGSU earlier this week, while the Broncos have lost four of their last five and look to end a three game losing streak.


Game Details

  • When: Saturday, Jan. 27th, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m. CST)
  • Where: University Arena - Kalamazoo, Michigan
  • Watch: ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app

Players to Watch

Eugene German, G, NIU - German continues to impress and lead the MAC in scoring, with 19.5 points per game. In just 11 minutes during Tuesday’s rout of Bowling Green, he dropped 19 points and was perfect from the field; 7-7 shooting and 5-5 from the free throws stripe.

Levi Bradley, G, NIU - Bradley leads the team in blocks per game, rebounds per game (5.8), and is second in points per game (13.9). He has reached double-digit in points in six of the last seven contests.

Josh Davis, G, WMU - Davis leads the team with 7.6 rebounds per game and is second on the team in scoring, netting 11 points per game. In the past four games he’s averaging 13.5 points and 7.5 rebounds.

Thomas Wilder, G, WMU - Wilder is by far the leading scorer for the Broncos, dropping 18.7 points per game, including an impressive 40 point performance on Tuesday against the Toledo Rockets. It was the sixth time he has scored 20+ points in a game this season.


Prediction

NIU snapped their losing skid on Tuesday...but look for WMU to break their’s here against the Huskies. German will once again do well and lead the Huskie offense but it will be Wilder and Davis that really shine as the Broncos send NIU back under the .500 mark.

NIU Huskies - 66
WMU Broncos - 78