The men’s basketball team will look to avenge its only loss of the season tonight at 7, when they take on UW-Stevens Point.

The Warhawks fell to the Pointers 79-77 on Dec. 14. Since then, the No. 2 ranked ’Hawks have won nine straight games and took sole possession of first place in the WIAC.

“It’ll be a good game, obviously the Tillema brothers are the heart and soul of that UW-Stevens Point team,” head coach Pat Miller said about the team’s leading scorers. “They have a number of players that can hit perimeter shots.”

Over the past week, the `Hawks increased their record to 17-1 after two wins on the road against UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stout. The `Hawks defeated the Titans 62-45 while defeating the Blue Devils 56-41.

Senior Chris Davis, the team’s leading scorer, hurt his MCL and missed the last two games. He leads the conference in scoring at 24.2 points per game and has led the team in points in 15 out of 16 games this season.

“We wanted to keep him out last week just to reduce the swelling in his knee, which we were able to do,” Miller said. “Now we need to get him braced to the point where he can tolerate it.”

Miller said he won’t count him out for tonight’s game and will watch his knee after participating in a light running and shooting session.

“I think there is a chance he plays, how many minutes he can play is another battle,” Miller said. “It’d be nice if we had him back for the game, but we have to think about the long term.”

Even without Davis, the `Hawks have had many players step up in his absence. Senior Alex Edmunds, who missed the first semester, has averaged 19 points per game since Davis’ injury.

“Now that Davis is out, everyone needs to step up a little bit,” Edmunds said. “I have been given a lot of opportunities and I have taken advantage of them.”

In the first game against the Pointers, Miller said that the team didn’t play bad defense, Stevens Point just hit a lot of shots, shooting 67 percent.

“We’ve been playing consistently good defense,” Miller said. “ I think our biggest element of the game is how we play defensively.”

Edmunds said he is excited to face the Pointers because he missed the first matchup.

“Since I missed the first game, I am pumped to come back,” Edmunds said. “[Potentially] having Davis back and being on a really nice win streak here, I think we can take it to them.”