How quickly three weeks can change a basketball team. From staring down a seventh-straight losing season to experiencing a complete renaissance, the team is quickly rising in the MAC West standings.

After an 88-79 victory against Eastern Michigan on Saturday at the Convocation Center, the Huskies (8-8, 4-2 MAC), winners of four straight, find themselves still a game behind first place in the MAC standings, but have legitimized themselves as a force in the conference.

The Huskies began the game sluggish, trailing 20-10 with 13:48 left in the game after the Eagles seemingly caught fire with every shot taken. With 8:03 left in the first half, junior forward Marcus Smallwood gave the Huskies a 25-24 lead, their first since early in the game, by grabbing two offensive rebounds before his putback resulted in a three-point play.

Smallwood’s 24 points and 18 rebounds, his seventh double-double of the season and fourth in a row, led the way as the Huskies played a nip-and-tuck game during the remainder of the first half and into the second half.

Freshman guard Todd Peterson started the second half and scored a career-high 19 points. Senior guard Jay Bates added 14 points in 20 minutes of play.

Bates’ fast break layup gave the Huskies a 69-67 lead with 7:45 left in the game, a lead that slowly grew as high as 10 points.

With under five minutes left in regulation, junior guard Perry Smith, who tallied 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds, left the game after aggressively scrambling for a loose ball at mid-court and taking a shot to the nose for his efforts. He will wear a protective face mask for the next one to two weeks.

Eagles’ forward Markus Austin scored 21 points in a losing effort, while Ohio State transfer JaQuan Hart was held to 11 points (3-for-4 on three-pointers). Guard Ricky Cottrill, who averaged 28.5 points in two games against the Huskies last season, was almost a non-factor with three points.

The Huskies out-rebounded the Eagles 41-31 and outshot them 54 percent to 41 percent, a result EMU coach Jim Boone felt was because of poor execution and decision-making.

“If we could have kept Marcus Smallwood off the glass, we might have had a different result,” Boone said. “We did a poor job of attacking their zones and settling for the threes instead of taking it to the basket.”

Judson continued to praise the heart and determination his team has exhibited over the past few weeks. Judson maintained his reserved philosophy of not looking ahead too far into the future and rather taking his team’s progression and success one day at a time. Judson did, however, note the crowd’s presence and impact during the game.

“When Marcus dunked it, toward the end of the game, we came out of the time-out, and the crowd got up and energized us defensively,” Judson said.