In the midst of the toughest part of its schedule, Northwestern will try to avoid a letdown in Saturday’s nonconference matchup with Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne at Welsh-Ryan Arena. It will be the first-ever meeting between the schools.

IPFW is an independent school in Division I-A with an enrollment of 11,757. The Mastodons (7-15) are 0-3 against Big Ten teams this season – all road games. But they played well in an 84-73 loss to No. 12 Michigan State and had a chance to beat Notre Dame at the buzzer in a 65-63 defeat.

The Wildcats (11-10, 4-6 Big Ten) are coming off a 51-48 upset against No. 18 Iowa. NU had dropped six of its previous seven games, including losses to nationally ranked Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Michigan State. The Cats resume their daunting schedule next week with consecutive games against Illinois, Ohio State and Wisconsin.

“We had to get that game (against Iowa) just to survive,” coach Bill Carmody said.

– Gerald Tang