The next attraction on Chick Evans Field House’s bill after the Black Crowes brought the house down is the Western Illinois University Leathernecks.

WIU (7-15, 4-8) invades DeKalb tonight and will be attempting to sweep the season series from the Huskies (12-9, 7-4) after taking an 84-75 decision earlier in the season.

After getting off to 3-1 start, the Leathernecks proceeded to lose their next 12 games. In that stretch WIU lost to a slew of rather bad teams. Chicago State (3-21), Elmhurst College and Youngstown State (3-18) all benefited from Western’s apparent lack of talent.

“For a long time I thought we would never win another game,” said head coach Jim Kerwin.

Leave it to the Leathernecks to wake up just before they had NIU on the schedule. The drought ended one game before their meeting with the Huskies when they pulled out a 76-70 win over Eastern Illinois. WIU is 4-2 since the losing streak.

One of the players that NIU will have to keep their eyes on is Shane Tenagarden (15.3 ppg). He comes in attempting nearly seven three point shots a game and has hit on 41 percent of those shots.

If that’s not bad enough, Paul Lee just set a school record by sinking eight three’s in one game against Youngstown State last week. Lee is shooting 40 percent from three point land.

“They can certainly shoot the basketball,” said head coach Brian Hammel. “We need to do a good job of getting out and contesting those shots. … This kid (Paul) Lee has really taken the program to another level.”

Offensively, the Huskies will have to deal with one of the premier shot blockers in the conference. Shelby Thurmond averages 3.3 blocks per game and boasts a season high nine in the loss to Chicago State.

Look for Mike Lipnisky to come out fired up. After a season-low two points against Valpo, the 6-3 sophomore should be ready to explode.