In five road games this season, the NIU men’s basketball team has only come home with one victory.

For the second time this week, the Huskies will look to change their road woes as they head into Saturday’s match-up against MAC West opponent Western Michigan. The two teams will square off at 1 p.m. in Kalamazoo, Mich.

NIU (5-9 overall, 1-1 MAC) is coming off a tough loss to Ball State over the weekend, where the team gave up a seven-point halftime lead en route to a 60-54 road loss.

Oppositely, Western Michigan (5-10, 2-0) has seen the winner’s circle twice in the MAC and remains undefeated in conference play with its recent win over Toledo. With the two MAC victories, the Broncos will look for their third straight win this Saturday against NIU.

The streak is the team’s first of the 2008-2009 season, and adds to another streak of 10 home-court victories against MAC opponents.

Western Michigan’s junior guard David Kool poses the largest threat to the Huskie defense. Kool averages 17.2 points a game and poured in 26 points in the Bronco’s conference opener against Central Michigan.

WMU has only one more player scoring in double-digits and ranks eighth in the MAC in scoring offense with 63.4 points a game.

On the defensive end, Andre Ricks provides a much-needed spark to help the Broncos keep opponents to an average of 65.6 points a game.

“He’s energy defensively because he can really cause problems with his quickness,” said WMU head coach Steve Hawkins about Ricks’ recent success on the court. “That’s something we’d been missing, his intensity defensively on a consistent basis and I think it’s something that spreads to the rest of the team.”

To combat WMU, NIU ranks second in the MAC in scoring offense putting up an average of 69 points a game. However, the Huskies rank 11th in scoring defense, allowing opponents to tally an average of 71.7 points a game.

Going into Kalamazoo, NIU head coach Ricardo Patton said that one of the team’s main focuses lies on shooting a better free throw percentage. NIU has capitalized on only 188 of its 311 freebies, placing them in the 10th spot in the conference.

“You see some guys missing free throws and you put more pressure on yourself to make them,” said freshman Mike DiNunno. “The confidence level is not there. Our minds aren’t where they need to be.”