Fresh off its first MAC road win, women’s basketball (7-8, 3-2 MAC) has the chance to put together back-to-back wins for only the second time this season.

After winning the second of two road games, the Huskies return home for one game before they go back on the road. They will face the Buffalo Bulls (9-7, 2-3 MAC) at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Convocation Center.

The Huskies most recently defeated Miami (Ohio) Saturday in Oxford. After trailing by 10 in the first half, they used a second-half comeback with a strong close late to seal the victory, 69-66.

“We weren’t very good defensively against Miami, and we were very flat defensively,” said head coach Kathi Bennett. “We talked a great deal about rededicating ourselves to being the good defensive team we know we can be.

“Especially against Buffalo, [because] they have great size, if we don’t defend them and maintain some ball pressure and help, rally to the ball, double on their bigs, it’s going to hurt us. So, we really have to come out ready defensively against Buffalo.”

NIU is 4-2 at home, but it is 2-0 at home during conference play. The last time the Huskies lost at home was Dec. 31, when they fell to Illinois-Chicago, 66-54.

The only time the Huskies have strung together wins was when they defeated Lamar, 79-52, on Nov. 30 and Illinois State, 57-52, on Dec. 5.

The Bulls bring with them a two-game win streak. They defeated Toledo (7-9, 2-3 MAC), 51-46, Jan. 15 and Eastern Michigan (12-4, 2-3 MAC), 84-83, in overtime Saturday. Buffalo has lost two straight road games and hasn’t won on the road since Dec. 21, when it beat Niagara, 78-70, but it still sports a 4-5 record away from home.

“They’re a team that makes you play faster than what you want to because of how they play defense,” Bennett said. “They trap, they play a lot of different defenses. And then offensively, pretty much everyone they put in can score. … They can just really spread you out, hit 3s, so we have to respect every single person and just make sure we’re really flying around on the defensive end.”

The Bulls’ are led by sophomore guard Mackenzie Loesing, who was recently named the MAC East Player of the Week. She averaged 20.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, four steals and three assists in Buffalo’s wins over Toledo and EMU. She hit the game-winning shot with 2.5 seconds remaining in OT to beat EMU.

“We’re going to start Amanda [Corral] on her,” Bennett said. “Amanda’s one of our best defenders, and I think one of the better defenders in the MAC. That’s your hope: to slow her down. You have to contest shots, get a hand up and make her work for everything. That’s what we have to do.

“You hate to say, ‘Make other people beat us,’ because they’re all capable of scoring. It’s going to take a great defensive effort on our part. And for us, because they’re so big, we have to do a great job of offensive rebounding, limiting them to one shot; that’s something that’s helped us against teams that have size. If we do a great job on the defensive glass, that limits their possessions offensively, and that’s what we need.”

Following the Buffalo game, the Huskies will travel to Bowling Green (14-3, 4-1 MAC). The Falcons will host Eastern Michigan today before hosting NIU at 1 p.m. on Sunday.