The Northern Illinois Huskies and the Northwestern Wildcats meet Monday in college basketball action from Welsh-Ryan Arena. Northern Illinois is sitting on a five-game winning streak this year. The Huskies took out DePaul in their last game, moving the team to 5-1 overall. As for Northwestern, they saw their four-game win streak snapped last Sunday versus Mississippi State. Make sure to read our Northern Illinois vs Northwestern Prediction.

Northern Illinois Huskies 

The Huskies had a tough opener matchup versus Marquette, falling 92-70 in a blowout. Since then it’s been a series of wins though, as NIU took out Appalachian State, Illinois Tech, Georgia State and Little Rock in the next quartet. The Huskies managed 58.3 percent shooting from the field in the 98-93 win over the Trojans. 

Northern Illinois was able to keep it going in their last matchup versus DePaul. The Huskies were up 43-31 by the break and held on for the 89-79 result. David Coit led the team with is 34 points, five rebounds and three assists. Zarique Nutter added 19 points with seven rebounds and three steals. 

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Northwestern Wildcats

Over on the Wildcats’ side, their season kicked off with a nice four-game win streak. Those victories came courtesy of Binghamton, Dayton, Western Michigan and Rhode Island in succession. In their victory over the Hens, Northwestern owned the boards 39-30 and posted 17 team assists. 

Matched up against Mississippi State last Sunday, Northwestern had a 29-27 edge going into the second half. The Wildcats were outscored 39-28 from there however, and lost 66-57. Ty Berry topped the team scorers on 14 points, while both Ryan Langborg (four rebounds; four assists) and Brooks Barnhizer each had 13 points. 

ANDREW’S FREE NORTHWESTERN VERSUS NIU PREDICTION 

I’ll go with Northwestern. You could argue it either way, though; we should have a pretty fun matchup here. The Wildcats played pretty well until the second half against Mississippi State in their last game, all things considered. The final numbers weren’t great, though: 37.7 percent from the field and a 34-28 rebounding deficit. Still, it wasn’t a bad effort against a tough Bulldogs team. 

As for Northern Illinois, they hit 48.3 percent from the field with 39 rebounds in their latest win over DePaul. The Huskies have hit 70 or more points in every game so far this season, so this one could end up as a high-total finish. I like Northwestern to follow along and pull out the late cover, but it’s a coin flip.