With its season opener approaching, it has been the defense that has helped the NIU men’s basketball team begin 2-0.

In their first exhibition game against the Illinois Institute of Technology, the Huskies defense had 15 steals and forced 25 turnovers. The turnovers led directly to 34 of NIU’s 101 points.

The defense continued to assert itself against Laval University Saturday.

The team from Canada turned over the ball 22 times, with nine of them being steals.

The Huskies held LU to a less than .200 shooting percentage for most of the first half before a late run pulled it up to .346.

By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, NIU already had forced 12 turnovers with a 49-23 lead.

“I liked our defensive effort in the first half,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “Holding them to 35-percent shooting is good. But in the second half, I think we gave them too many easy looks.”

In the second half, the Huskies forced another 10 turnovers, but LU was able to shoot .462 from the field.

NIU keyed in on Charles Fortier, the team’s leading scorer through its first nine games, and held him to 4-of-7 shooting for 11 points.

Though NIU came away with the victory, the game was one of those times when the box score didn’t tell the whole story, Judson said.

Still the fact remains that NIU has held its first two opponents to just 106 total points while forcing 47 turnovers.

Guard Anthony Maestranzi leads the team with seven steals in the first two games, and freshman Zach Pancratz is second with five.