Inside play and outside shooting are assets every team desires for every time on the court. NIU’s Marcus Smallwood and Todd Peterson provided that for the Huskies on Saturday.

“Every team wants to play inside-out,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “It’s something we stress, it was one of our keys [Saturday].”

In NIU’s 88-79 win over Eastern Michigan, Smallwood shot 11-of-14, with no shot coming from farther than 10 feet from the hoop. He finished with a game-high 24 points and 18 rebounds.

Peterson, on the other hand, was feeling it from the perimeter as he hit five three-pointers and finished with a career-high 19 points.

The 6-foot-6 freshman gave NIU a 41-38 lead at halftime when he connected on a three-pointer with 12.3 seconds left in the half.

“The crowd loves to see threes and they love to see dunks,” Peterson said. “They’re fun. When I get a chance in transition to hit that three I want to knock it down.”

For Smallwood’s efforts, a double-double in each of NIU’s four-game winning streak, he was named MAC West Player of the week on Monday for the first time of his career.

“I don’t know if we’ve played against anybody in the league … but we haven’t seen anyone that goes up and gets the ball like Marcus Smallwood,” EMU coach Jim Boone said.