Northern Illinois hosts UMass after Banks’ 22-point outing

UMass Minutemen (11-7, 2-4 MAC) at Northern Illinois Huskies (5-11, 1-4 MAC)

DeKalb, Illinois; Saturday, 3 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: UMass takes on Northern Illinois after Marcus Banks scored 22 points in UMass’ 85-82 victory against the Western Michigan Broncos.

The Huskies are 4-3 in home games. Northern Illinois is the MAC leader with 11.4 offensive rebounds per game led by Gustav Winther averaging 2.4.

The Minutemen have gone 2-4 against MAC opponents. UMass is sixth in the MAC scoring 80.8 points per game and is shooting 46.5%.

Northern Illinois averages 8.6 made 3-pointers per game, 1.8 more made shots than the 6.8 per game UMass gives up. UMass averages 7.6 made 3-pointers per game this season, 0.2 more makes per game than Northern Illinois allows.

The Huskies and Minutemen meet Saturday for the first time in MAC play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Makhai Valentine is scoring 13.5 points per game and averaging 5.7 rebounds for the Huskies. Dylan Ducommun is averaging 11.5 points and 3.0 rebounds over the last 10 games.

Leonardo Bettiol is scoring 16.6 points per game and averaging 7.4 rebounds for the Minutemen. Banks is averaging 15.3 points and 3.0 rebounds over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Huskies: 2-8, averaging 70.3 points, 34.5 rebounds, 12.1 assists, 6.3 steals and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 40.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 79.2 points per game.

Minutemen: 6-4, averaging 83.0 points, 37.3 rebounds, 19.0 assists, 7.2 steals and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting 46.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.8 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.