MAC Men's Basketball Second Round Action Takes Place Tonight

• Following a MAC Tournament First Round victory over Eastern Michigan on Monday night, Northern Illinois has advanced to take on Western Michigan in the second round on Wednesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.The No. 8 seed Broncos bring a 13-19 overall record to Cleveland, advancing by virtue of a 69-63 first round home win over Ball State. The balanced Western Michigan offense features four players who average in double figures. Demetrius Ward leads the way at 11.6 points per game while Flenard Whitfield (11.5), Matt Stainbrook (11.5) and Mike Douglas (10.9) all joining him in double figures. The contest between the Huskies and Broncos features two of the top rebounding teams in the MAC as Western Michigan ranks second in the league in rebounding margin (+4.8) while NIU is third in the league (+3.0)...Northern Illinois snapped a nine-game Mid-American Conference Tournament losing streak with its 55-52 victory over MAC West Division champion Eastern Michigan on Monday night (March 5). The Huskies’ last win prior to Monday was a 75-63 victory over Western Michigan in the quarterfinals of the 2003 Tournament. NIU is now 9-16 all-time in MAC Tournament play

• No. 7 Toledo will meet No. 11 Central Michigan in the second round of the 2012 MAC Tournament on Wednesday, March 7. Tip-off time is set for 9:30 p.m. with the contest being televised live on SportsTime Ohio. No. 3 Ohio awaits the UT-CMU winner in the MAC Quarterfinals on Thursday, March 8 at 9:30 p.m. Toledo features a balanced scoring attack with four players scoring in double figures. Pearson leads the way with a MAC-best 16.6 scoring mark. Joining Pearson in double figures are junior G Curtis Dennis (12.7 ppg), freshman G Julius Brown (11.8 ppg) and junior G Dominique Buckley (10.1 ppg) with sophomore F Matt Smith (9.0 ppg) just under the double-digit barrier... The Chippewas have won three of their last five contests since dropping a 72-67 decision at Toledo on Feb. 22. Sophomore G Trey Zeigler ranks fourth in the MAC with 15.7 ppg and eighth with 6.7 rpg. CMU has now won three first-round MAC Tournament road games since 2000. The Chippewas won as a No. 13 seed in 2000, No. 12 seed in 2002 and No. 11 seed this year.