After its latest defeat against SIUE at the buzzer, NIU men’s basketball will head out out on the road to take on MAC West leading Eastern Michigan.

Despite the Huskies’ (3-22, 2-10 MAC) heartbreaking loss, they are not letting it affect them.

“I think we are even more pumped now,” said NIU forward Aksel Bolin. “We were close last game, and I think we should have had that one. I think everyone felt like that because we were up by 10 at half.”

In the Huskies lost to the Eagles (11-16, 6-6 MAC) 47 to 40 in a matchup earlier this season.

In the first matchup, Eastern Michigan got to the free throw line with ease and converted 19-24 from the line, while NIU took 30 three-pointers and only hit seven of them.

“We’re going to try to not take 30 three-point shots,” said NIU coach Mark Montgomery. “So we’re going to try to cut down that number to half of those, and hopefully this time, we can keep them off the foul line. I thought them getting to the foul line helped them win the game.”

Bolin said the Huskies will try to work the ball into the post as opposed to taking so many jump shots and three-pointers.

“This time, we don’t want to settle for a jump shot,” Bolin said. “We want to get to the rim and take closer shots, so we’re trying to look more in the post, getting touches in the high post and in the low post as well as having people cut to the middle.”

As far as the Eagles offense goes, they have an inside-outside game that starts with Da’Shonte Riley and Darrell Lampley who leads the team in scoring, by averaging 13 points per game.

“It’s a combination of both,” Montgomery said. “They are going to try to go into Riley early and establish the post, and they are going to try to get out and score in transition.”