HOUGHTON — The Michigan Tech men’s basketball team hits the road this weekend as they head 100 miles Southeast to Marquette to battle their GLIAC foes, the Northern Michigan Wildcats.

The Huskies, who are 9-8 overall and 4-6 in the GLIAC, are coming to the end of a month of conference play where there have been more losses than wins. The team is 2-4 in January; however, their two victories have been big ones. Two weeks ago, they defeated the 2018 NCAA Division II national champions, Ferris State, 64-61. Last Thursday, they had a come-from-behind win in overtime against the Grand Valley State Lakers, 91-87.

But, those big wins were followed by disappointing losses to Lake Superior State and Davenport on the following Saturdays.

“Splitting at home seems to be our theme right now,” said Michigan Tech head coach Kevin Luke. “I liked the way we played on Thursday evenings to defeat a Grand Valley club and as we did with Ferris. We made free throws down the stretch and did a nice job rebounding and defending and able to close the game off.”

“Despite losing to Davenport, 77-68, we had a good start a good first half, 29-26,” said Luke. “We played within ourselves and executed well in the first half, but fell apart in the second half when the Panthers came from behind with 17 unanswered points in a six-minute stretch. We would like to take care of business in that second game.”

This week, the Huskies have to worry only about one game. After playing several weeks of Thursday and Saturday games, Luke welcomes a longer week of practice and rest.

“We will be working on fixing those stretches in the games where we’ve allowed the opponent to pile on points,” he said. “If we can eliminate those, we are going to be much more successful.”

Luke characterized Saturday’s match-up as youth versus experience.

The Wildcats (10-7 overall, 5-5 GLIAC) are averaging 73.7 points per game (ppg). They shoot 45 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from past the three-point arc. They have the experience as they are led by two returning seniors in Naba Echols and Isaiah Johnson. Both guards were named to the 2017-18 All- GLIAC First Team. This year, Echols is averaging 18.3 ppg while Johnson is averaging 21.6 ppg.

On the other end of the court, the Huskies are averaging 65.4 ppg after 17 games. The team is shooting 41.3 percent from the field and 34.6 percent from three-point land.

Among the Huskies young starting five are guards Dawson Bilski and Bryan Heath. Bilski leads the team with 13.6 ppg and Heath follows with 13.1 ppg. Luke noted that it is critical not only for these two but for for his other shooters, Issac Appleby (7.5 ppg) and Owen White (9.5 ppg), to be ready to play a full 40 minutes on Saturday. These leaders will not only need to add to the scoring column but to keep Johnson and Echols off the scoreboard.

“We will work to keep them contained,” said Luke. “Either of them could go for 30 points on any given night. They are seniors who can keep their cool and run their offense.

“It will be another new challenge and a good one for us.”