NIU basketball players and coaches waited for this moment all season.

The MAC Tournament is a new season, they all said.

But when the No. 11-seed Huskies face No. 6 Western Michigan tonight at 6 p.m. in Cleveland, the season won’t be as new as NIU hoped.

For the second time in less than a week, NIU (7-22, 4-12) squares off against Western Michigan (15-15, 9-7).

“In conference play, when you play a team for the third time, you are so familiar that it’s hard to do a lot of new things,” head coach Rob Judson said. “The big thing is establishing within our own group the belief that you can get the job done.”

In the meeting on Thursday in Kalamazoo, the Broncos defeated NIU 68-54. But the score doesn’t represent NIU’s performance in the game, as the Huskies led at halftime.

The loss comes as retaliation from the Broncos because of a loss earlier in the season to NIU. On Jan. 6, the Huskies defeated WMU 70-68.

In that game, Mike McKinney made a layup with six seconds remaining in the game to seal the come-from-behind victory.

One force for WMU in both games was center Joe Reitz. Reitz put up 28 points and 10 rebounds in the first meeting and 13 points and 13 rebounds in the second.

After a 24-point senior night, James Hughes looks to be leading the way for NIU, but the senior center has struggled against Reitz. Hughes had two points in each of the games.

Judson said Hughes gets into foul trouble early when playing against Reitz – Hughes fouled out in the first game and had four fouls in the second – which cuts down on his playing time.

“We’re going to be excited to play it out,” Judson said. “We want them to be eager, to go there without nerves and to enjoy the moment.”