Senior Travon Baker (Detroit, Mich./Detroit Consortium) of the Northern Illinois University men’s basketball team was named Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week on Monday by the league office.

Baker scored 25 points in each of NIU’s first two conference games against Ohio (Jan. 6) and Eastern Michigan (Jan. 9), leading the Huskies to a pair of wins. The senior from Detroit shot 52.2 percent (12-of-23) from the field, including 55.6 percent (10-of-18) from three, and 94.1 percent (16-of-17) from the free-throw line.

In the conference opener against the Bobcats, Baker scored 13 of his 25 points in the final 2:13, going 2-of-2 from the field and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line to help the Huskies close out the victory. Baker went 14-of-15 overall from the line and also recorded four rebounds and four assists in the conference-opening win.

Three nights later against Eastern Michigan, Baker again scored 25 points, going 8-of-15 from the field, including 7-of-11 from three-point range. Baker’s seven triples ties Al Sewasciuk (Dec. 4, 2002 v. Drake) for the second-best single-game performance in NIU history. Donald Whiteside holds the NIU record with eight triples on March 5, 1990 against Wright State.

For the season, Baker ranks second in the MAC in assist/turnover ratio (2.4), fifth in assists per game (4.4), sixth in three-point field goal percentage (44.0 percent) and tied for seventh in steals per game (1.3). Baker is the second Huskie to earn MAC Player of the Week honors this season, joining Marin Maric (Split, Croatia/La Lumiere School) who was named MAC West Player of the Week on Dec. 21; this is the first career weekly honor for the Huskie senior guard.