As NIU defeated Eastern Michigan on Wednesday night at the Convocation Center, the Huskies’ starting point guard from last year, Jay Bates, watched from the stands.

At times this year, NIU coach Rob Judson wished Bates – a fifth-year senior finishing his degree – still had a year of eligibility.

“As the season went on last year, Jay Bates stepped it up in conference. Right now, Perry [Smith] and Marcus [Smallwood] have added on a couple of points from their averages from last year. At times we’ve had someone step up as that third scorer and it’s helped us, but right now we haven’t had that consistently.”

On Wednesday, Todd Peterson was the third option with 16 points and six rebounds on 4-of-5 three-point shooting.

“Todd has done that on a lot of occasions at home; now we need that more consistently,” Judson said.

Known primarily as a three-point shooter, Judson looks for Peterson, a 6-foot-7 sophomore guard, to improve on his ability to put the ball on the floor and create shots for himself.

On the season, Peterson averages one percentage point better shooting from the three-point arc (.352) as opposed to from two-point range (.351).

Peterson was the team’s third leading scorer behind Smallwood (22 points) and Smith (19 points) against the Eagles.

“I thought he was very good,” EMU coach Jim Boone said of Peterson. “Every time we made a mistake, he capitalized.”

Peterson’s improvements of late also have been noticed by his teammates.

“Todd is a hard worker and everyone knows he’s a great shooter,” Smith said. “But he has done a lot of work on his penetration and defense.”