Led by a pack of talented youth, the NIU men’s basketball team will compete in its first regular season home game at 7 p.m. tonight at the Convocation Center.

The Huskies will take on Missouri Valley Conference’s Indiana State.

NIU is off to a 1-1 start, after splitting the past weekend’s tournament games.

The Huskies competed in the 100 Club Classic and lost to Maine, then bounced back to win the consolation round against Western Illinois.

In the tournament, freshman Mike DiNunno stole the spotlight, averaging 21 points per game. In addition to the dominant effort of DiNunno, the team will feature many other offensive threats in the contest tonight.

Captain and redshirt sophomore Sean Kowal completed his Huskie debut with 24 points in two games, and also notched team highs with nine rebounds and four blocks.

Kowal’s strong defensive effort goes hand-in-hand with what NIU head coach Ricardo Patton wants to see from his team throughout this season.

“Defense is probably the toughest thing for young guys to get,” said Patton. “Most guys come into college with their offense ahead of their defense. It’s a different animal [in college]. Guys have to understand that you’ve got to intensify the effort.”

The Sycamores enter tonight’s game with two exhibition wins, and will open regular season play against the Huskies.

“They’ll be coming in with some high energy, being their first game,” Patton said. “Some of their youth is coming off redshirts, and they’ll be a good team. They’ll spread you out and shoot the ball well.”

The two teams met last year, when NIU suffered a 75-65 loss at the hands of the Sycamores. In the contest, sophomore Darion “Jake” Anderson scored a then season-best 23 points for the Huskies.

This year, however, Patton hopes to see multiple team members make big plays for NIU, especially on rebounding.

“They really hurt us last year, especially on the glass,” the coach said. “We just need to continue to get better on our defense, execution and taking care of the basketball. Until we do that, games are going to be difficult to win.”