Coming off two straight wins, the NIU men’s basketball team kicks off a two-game road trip tonight against Central Michigan.

Following a 75-70 loss to Ball State in their conference opener, the Huskies (6-9, 2-1 MAC) have notched back-to-back wins over MAC West foes Eastern Michigan and Toledo.

Senior guard Xavier Silas averaged 25.5 points over the two wins. Going into the Thursday contest, Silas sits at fourth in the nation in scoring with 23.6 points a game.

CMU (4-12, 1-2 MAC) is coming off a Saturday defeat at the hands of Ball State.

The Chippewas are led by freshman guard Trey Zeigler. Averaging 17 points a game, the Mount Pleasant, Mich. native ranks fourth in the nation among Division-I freshman in scoring.

Just as NIU guard Michael Patton is the son of NIU head coach Ricardo Patton, Zeigler is the son of CMU head coach Ernie Zeigler.

The Huskies will be making their first trip to McGuirk Arena, the recently constructed facility of the Chippewas.

Once inside the new building, NIU forward Tim Toler will look to build on a 14-point performance against Toledo. On the season, the junior is averaging 9.1 points and 4.5 rebounds a game.

A transfer from Danville Area Community College (Ind.), Toler is glad he’s starting to see some results from the hard work he’s put in.

“I feel like I’m finally starting to get into a groove,” Toler said. “It was kind of struggle for the first couple of games, getting used to the division one level. But right now, scoring is getting a lot easier and my teammates are finding me.”

The biggest difference between the junior college level and the Division-I level according to Toler is the intensity of the games.

“In junior college, sometimes there were games that were pretty hyped. But I could pretty much lay back and do whatever I want,” Toler said. “Division one, though, you have to go hard every single play.”

Before the season started, Patton and the rest of the NIU coaching staff knew it could take a few games before any real results starting coming in.

Through 15 games, Patton is pleased with the offensive progress shown, but needs to see improvement in other facets of Toler’s game.

“We still need him to get better with his post defense,” Patton said. “Offensively he has a shown an ability to score the basketball, but defensively is where he has the most ground to gain.”

Tip-off at McGuirk Arena is set for 6 p.m. central. Following a day off, NIU will travel Saturday to Kalamazoo to take on Western Michigan (9-7, 2-1 MAC) at 1 p.m.