THE NEED TO KNOWS
NIU (8-4, 1-0 MAC) vs Bowling Green (4-9, 0-1 MAC)
Tipoff: Wednesday, January 4, 6 p.m. CT
Video: ESPN3
Radio: WLBK 98.9 FM/1360 AM

MATCHUP DETAILS
NIU trails BGSU in the all-time series, 24-13; trails in Bowling Green, 15-5

FREE THROWS
• NIU women's basketball is No. 2 in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 91.0 points per game, 3.3 points behind national leader Baylor. The Huskies have scored 90-or-more points five times.
• In its first 12 games, NIU scored 80-or-more points 11 times and 75-or-more in all 12 games, a previously unrecorded feat in program history. The 1989-90 Huskies, the NCAA's Scoring Champions that season, also scored 80-or-more 11 times in their first 12 contests.
• Northern Illinois University is the only Division I school with three scorers averaging at least 17.0 points per game - Courtney Woods (17.8), Cassidy Glenn (17.4) and Ally Lehman (17.2). Duke, Syracuse, and UConn are the only other teams with two scorers averaging over 17.0 points per game.
• NIU is winless in its last eight trips to Bowling Green, last winning in a four-overtime thriller in 2004.
• Entering the game ninth in the country in assists per game (7.2), Ally Lehman leads the top-10 distributors in the country in scoring (17.2) and rebounding (10.8).
• The Huskies have outscored their foes 289-222 in the third quarter, including a season-best 31 points versus South Dakota on Dec. 19, and have only been outscored in the period three times this season. NIU is 6-2 when it outscores its foes in the frame.

ALL-AMERICA ALLY LEHMAN
• Though 2017 is in its infancy and the NCAA basketball season is only a third of the way through, no point guard has been as prolific as Ally Lehman this season.
• Lehman recorded her sixth game with eight-or-more assists against Eastern Michigan last Saturday when she fell just one assist shy of her third triple-double of 2016-17.
• On the glass, she's pulled down 10-or-more rebounds seven times this season and has registered eight double-doubles through 12 games.
• The Nineveh, Ind., native is ninth in the country in assists per game at 7.2, totaling 86 helpers. She is also fourth in the country in assist-turnover ratio with a clip of 3.74.
• Amongst her peers in the national top-10, Lehman leads all players in scoring (17.2) and rebounding (10.8), ranking 81st and 13th nationally, respectively.
• She is the only player in the country averaging 7-or-more assists with two triple-doubles this season. 
• The only player on that list with a triple-double this season is UCLA's Jordin Canada.
• Her 48-points against Milwaukee, tied for the most in Mid-American Conference history, still stands as the second-highest ranked total in Division I this season while her 21 rebounds that same night is the sixth-best.
• Her 40-20 performance was just the fourth such game in NCAA Division I since 2009-10.

STARTING OUT ON THE GOOD FOOT
• For the fourth-straight season, the NIU women's basketball team won its Mid-American Conference opener, defeating Eastern Michigan last Saturday, 85-73.
• The program had not won four-straight conference openers since 1990-94, a senior class that featured NIU Athletics Hall of Famer E.C. Hill.
• NIU has started 2-0 in MAC play since 2004-05 and has not won at Bowling Green since 2004.
• Northern Illinois is 1-14 in its last 15 games versus the Falcons, defeating BGSU in 2015 in the Convocation Center, 67-50.
• The Huskies closest call at the Stroh Center was in 2015, nearly overcoming a 20-point second half deficit and climbing within five points with 1:46 left in regulation. NIU fell to the Falcons, 65-59

QUALITY AND QUANTITY FROM THE FIELD
• When it comes to shooting the basketball, the Huskies have been rather consistent with the number of shots they take per game.
• Averaging 74 field goal attempts per game, NIU has taken 70-or-more nine times and reached the 80-shot plateau three times.
• However, the efficiency at which the Huskies have shot has been most outstanding as they have shot over 40 percent 11 times and surpassed 45 percent seven times.
• On Nov. 26 against Illinois State, Northern Illinois posted a season-best 51.8 percent field goal percentage, going 43-for-83 to defeat the Redbirds, 108-66.
• NIU has scored at least 80 points 11 times this season and reached the century mark twice. 
• Prior to this season, the Huskies last scored 100 points in a game in March 1996.

WE ARE WHO WE ARE - NO IDENTITY CRISIS
• The Huskies have played with a pronounced, fast-paced offensive style all season long.
• NIU enters Saturday's game 52nd nationally in assists per game, averaging 16.1 dimes per game, but the equal distribution comes from the six Huskies averaging 10-or-more points per game.
• NIU has had four-or-more players with 10 points-or-more in a game 10 times this season and five-or-more hit the mark six times.
• Second nationally in average points (91.0), four of the Huskies starters – Cassidy Glenn, Ally Lehman, Mikayla Voigt and Courtney Woods – are averaging double figures while substitute Kelly Smith is also accomplishing the feat.
• Glenn, Lehman and Woods, all of whom average at least 17.0 points per game, make up the trio makes NIU the only team in the country with at least three players averaging 17.0 points per game.
• Heavyweights Duke, Syracuse, and UConn are the only other schools with two players that currently average such a total.

McBUCKETS ON THE MOVE
• Sophomore Mikayla Voigt has been a steady contributor all season long, scoring in double figures nine times for an average of 12.0 points per game.
• However, in the last two games, Voigt has done some of her best work, leading the Huskies attack while scoring with efficiency.
• Voigt has averaged 17.5 points per game in contests versus UMKC and Eastern Michigan, capped by a 19-point afternoon against the Roos, a season-best output.
• Her best shooting performance of 2016-17 occurred in the Mid-American Conference opener, going 7-of-9 from the field with a 2-for-4 tally behind the arc, for a total of 16 points.
• Averaging 9.8 shots per game, the Slinger, Wis., native has steadily improved her field goal percentage throughout the season, registering a clip of .436 from the field.
• She is fourth on the team with an average of 12.0 points per game.

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS
• NIU has registered 10-or-more points via fast break six times this season, including the last two games.
• The Huskies have outscored UMKC and Eastern Michigan a combined 27-10 in the last two games while owning a 124-49 edge over their 12 foes, holding Loyola, Milwaukee, Chicago State and Bradley scoreless in the category.
• Northern Illinois has only been outscored via fast break twice this season and were last bested by reigning WNIT Champion South Dakota, 4-0.

FROM KC TO THE DIRTY D, IT'S A BLOCK PARTY
• The Huskies defense has put together some of its best performances of the season in the last three games, averaging seven blocks per game in that time.
• NIU has tallied 21 blocks in the last three games, paced by a nine block effort against UMKC.
• The return of Kelly Smith in the NIU lineup has been key to that success as she has tallied eight of the Huskies blocks, including six in the team's contests in Kansas City versus South Dakota and the host Kangaroos.
• The three-game stretch is NIU's best blocking run of the season and has vaulted NIU from 166th (3.3) in the country in blocks per game to 75th (4.3).

STICKY FINGERS
• While the Huskies have been blocking shots, they've also caused 41 turnovers and totaled 22 steals in the process, including 10 steals at UMKC.
• It was the fourth time this season that NIU registered double figures in steals and the first time in its last five games.
• Northern Illinois University has outscored its foes 53-28 in points off turnovers in the last three games.
• Seniors Cassidy Glenn and Ally Lehman have led the Huskies with six steals each with Lehman registering two in each game and Glenn recording four at UMKC and two more versus EMU.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
• Bowling Green enters the game with a 4-9 record after its MAC-opening loss to Ohio, 69-58.
• The Falcons last won on Dec. 7 when it defeated Ohio Valley, 82-46, and is winless in its last four outings.
• Like the Huskies, though, BGSU is 1-0 in overtime this games in 2016-17, defeating Saint Peter's earlier this season, 73-68.
• Averaging 61.1 points as a team, Carly Santoro is the lone Falcon averaging 10-or-more points per game.
• The Falcons are also pulling down 43.6 rebounds per game with nine players contributing 2.0 or more rebounds per game.

NEXT UP
• NIU returns home to host Ohio Saturday, January 7 in the first game of a Mid-American Conference doubleheader with NIU men's basketball.
• Tipoff at the Convocation Center is set for 1 p.m. Central.