Men’s basketball’s season-best four-game win streak to end the season was too little too late to earn it a home postseason game.

The No. 10 seed Huskies (14-15, 8-10) will open the MAC Tournament against the No. 7 seed Akron Zips (18-13, 9-9 MAC) 6 p.m. today at Rhodes Arena in Akron, Ohio. Akron is 14-3 at home this season.

“Akron’s a good opponent, a lot of history, and it’ll be a good matchup,” said head coach Mark Montgomery. “When you get to March, you don’t really care as much about your matchup; you’re just excited to be playing.”

The Huskies and Zips met once during the regular season with NIU pulling out a 64-61 on Jan. 21 in DeKalb. The Huskies’ last win at Akron came on Feb. 12, 2008.

NIU is 2-1 in the first round of the MAC Tournament under Montgomery.