DEKALB, Ill. -- Less than 48 hours after seeing its six-game win streak come to an end, the Northern Illinois University men's basketball team will return to action as the Huskies visit UC Davis on Saturday, December 7. Tipoff against the Aggies is slated for 7 p.m. CT and will be available online at BigWest.tv.

Playing its first game in nine days, NIU (6-3) got off to a slow start on Thursday night (Dec. 5) at Saint Mary's, as the Gaels built a 14-point first half lead. The Huskies rallied to within eight at the intermission and scored the first seven of the second half to close to within one but were unable to complete the comeback.

Senior Eugene German (Gary, Ind./21st Century Charter) scored a team-high 16 points against Saint Mary's and moved past Paul Dawkins (1975-79; 1,749 points) into fourth on NIU's career scoring list; German currently has 1,756 career points.

Saint Mary's came into Thursday's game ranked number one in the country in three-point percentage, shooting 45.8 percent from beyond the arc, NIU held the Gaels to just 34.6 percent (9-of-26) shooting from three as the Huskies are currently holding opponents to just 27.6 percent, 35th in the country.

The Aggies of UC Davis bring a 3-7 record into Saturday's contest and will be playing just their second home game of the season after completing a five-game road trip, which included a six-point loss at California and a four-point loss at Utah, with an 85-66 win at Northern Arizona on Wednesday (Dec. 4).

Three players are scoring in double figures for the Aggies, led by 16.0 points per game from Joe Mooney. Ezra Manjon is adding 12.5 points per game and Matt Neufeld in chipping in 11.7 points per contest. As a team, UC Davis ranks 25th nationally in free throw percentage, shooting 77.4 percent from the charity stripe.

Saturday's contest will be just the second all-time meeting between NIU and UC Davis. The two teams met last season with the Huskies claiming a 71-62 victory in DeKalb (Dec. 5, 2018). Levi Bradley scored a team-high 15 points in the win, German added 14 points while Gairges Daow (Melbourne, Australia/Victory Rock Academy) and Rod Henry-Hayes (Zion, Ill./Zion-Benton Township) each scored 10 points in the victory.

UC Davis is one of five teams NIU has met from the Big West during head coach Mark Montgomery's tenure in DeKalb. The Huskies are 4-3 against the Big West under Montgomery, having also played UC Santa Barbara (0-1), Cal State Northridge (1-1), UC Riverside (2-0) and Cal Poly (0-1).

Following Saturday's contest, the Huskies will be off for a week for finals before returning to action on Monday, December 16 at Pittsburgh in a game televised nationally on the ACC Network.