Coming off its first win in more than a month, the NIU men’s basketball team will play at 6 p.m. Saturday at Eastern Michigan.

NIU, which defeated Miami-Ohio 62-54 on Wednesday, came within one game from tying the school’s longest losing streak of 11 games.

“I’m just happy for the players,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “They came out to practice and worked hard and made progress, but it hadn’t been evident in the games.”

The longest losing streak in school history was in the 1975-’76 season. That team went on to a 5-21 record and a 2-14 mark in the MAC.

Before the Miami victory on Wednesday, the Huskies’ last win was a Jan. 14 win at home over EMU. The Eagles (12-12, 6-9) have gone 6-6 since that game.

In the first meeting, NIU forward Marcus Smallwood scored a game-high 22 points and forward Rome Sanders grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds in the win.

NIU has beaten Eastern Michigan seven straight times in the series.

In Eastern Michigan’s 75-64 win over Ohio on Wednesday, Markus Austin scored 26 points on 6-of-9 three-point shooting.

“Austin is playing well,” Judson said. “He’s the one that’s really pushed them to where they’re at.”

Austin averaged 26.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and three assists in two wins for EMU last week.

The Eagles have won six of nine games since dropping four straight in January.