The men’s basketball team improved to 8-0 this past week after defeating Illinois Wesleyan University on Wednesday  65-53 and stomping UW-Stout 84-51 on Saturday.

The Warhawks will host UW-La Crosse tonight at 7 p.m. in the Kachel Gymnasium.

Last year the ’Hawks split their games with the Eagles, so the team is expecting a very tough game. Senior Chris Davis said the ’Hawks could use some support to let the Eagles know that “they’re in our place.”

The ’Hawks were led by Davis and sophomore Alex Merg in both games. Against the Titans, Merg led all scorers with 16 points and also had six assists, while Davis posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Head coach Pat Miller said Wesleyan was the best and largest team the ’Hawks have played so far this year. He said he was happy with how his frontcourt handled the height and size.

“The Wesleyan game was a good test for front line to see how much depth we have there, and I think we passed,” Miller said.

However, he still believes there is much room for improvement.

“We were out rebounded in both of the games this week, so obviously we need to try to fix that,” Miller said. “Twelve of Wesleyan’s 19 first-half points were off of offensive boards, so we can’t give up second chances like that.”

Against the Blue Devils, Davis led all scorers with 21 points, and Merg played the role of distributor, dishing out seven assists.

Miller said Merg has made huge strides since last year is and impressed with the sophomore’s assist-to-turnover ratio, which is about 5-to-1.

Merg is just one underclassman on a team that’s full of them. Davis is the only senior on the squad, but he said he believes his younger teammates are extremely mature already.

“Everybody is buying into what coach is saying and to this point, our defense has been really good,” Davis said. “With this type of D, we can compete with anybody.”

Miller has been extremely pleased with the freshmen and large number of returning players who have made big steps in becoming reliable contributors to the team.

“We’ve got a very unselfish team,” Miller said. “So many guys are doing positive things for us. Our freshmen are playing better and better and a bunch of guys made big steps from last year. It’s encouraging because we are making positive steps in every game.”