GAME INFO
Bradley (3-2) – NIU (4-2)
Date: Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017
Time: 6 PM CT
Location: DeKalb, Ill. • Convocation Center (9,100)
TV: ESPN3
Radio: 1360 WLBK AM
 
BRAGGING RIGHTS
Wednesday's game with Bradley is the fourth of six contests versus in-state foes this season. NIU improved to 122-123 against Division I teams from the state of Illinois with its 80-59 victory at Chicago State. The Huskies are 3-0 this season against Illinois teams. In addition to their win over the Cougars, the Huskies defeated Eastern Illinois, 93-64, in the season opener, and Western Illinois, 96-94 on Nov. 18. Following Wednesday night's game with the Braves, NIU will play host to Loyola (Dec. 6) before traveling to SIUE Dec. 17. NIU was 5-1 versus teams from the Land of Lincoln last year and is 12-2 overall under Lisa Carlsen.
 
SERIES HISTORY
NIU owns an 11-7 record in the all-time series history with Bradley. The Huskies has won last four meetings between the two, including last year's contest, 81-51. NIU's current four-game winning streak is the longest by either team in the series. The Braves won three straight games from 2010-12.
 
WHEN LAST WE MET
Ally Lehman's second triple-double of the season propelled the Huskies to an 81-51 victory at Bradley last season. Lehman scored 12 points, hauled in 11 rebounds and dished out 10 assists to lead six Huskie players to score in double figures. Mikayla Voigt and Janae Poisson finished with a team-high 13 points, while Abby Woollacott added 12 off the bench. Courtney Woods and Cassidy Glenn each finished with 10 points. The Huskie defense held Bradley to 24.7 percent shooting from the floor.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Huskies went 1-1 at the 2017 UTSA Thanksgiving Classic, defeating the host Roadrunners, 69-55, before falling to Lamar, 90-80, in the final game of the tournament. Mikayla Voigt led the way on the way for NIU, averaging 16 points a game, including 19 against Lamar.
 
RACE TO 1,000
Three Huskies entered this season with an opportunity to reach the 1,000-point plateau. Kelly Smith is 27 points away from the 1,000-point mark with 973 career points, while teammate Courtney Woods is right behind her with 972 points in her three-year NIU career. Mikayla Voigt is 216 points away from 1,000 with 784 career points. She scored a career best 380 points last year. The Huskies have never had three players score their 1,000th career point in the same season. The last time more than one Huskie scored their 1,000th career point in the same season was 1993-94 when E.C. Hill and Angela Lockett accomplished the feat.
 
HEY 19
Junior Mikayla Voigt tied her career high in points scored twice last week. The Huskie guard scored 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting in an 80-59 win at Chicago State and against Lamar on 5-of-12 in the tournament finale at the 2017 UTSA Thanksgiving Classic. She tallied 19 points twice last season as well, first against UMKC (12/20/16) and last versus Ohio (3/8/17). Voigt is averaging 14 points per game this season and 11.4 for her career.
 
LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN
Mikayla Voigt set a career high in three-points made when she hit 7-of-8 three pointers in NIU's 90-80 setback to Lamar. Her previous career best was four set versus Miami (1/21/17).
 
GETTING DEFENSIVE
The Huskie defense held their second-straight opponent to under 60 points when NIU held UTSA to 55 points, four days after limiting Chicago State to 59 points. This year's total of teams held to 60 points or less matches last season's tally. NIU held Bradley (12/2/16) to 51 and Western Michigan (3/10/17) to 55 in the MAC Tournament.
 
OUT OF THE WOODS
NIU junior Courtney Woods was named the MAC West Player of the Week on Tuesday, Nov. 21 following a pair of double-digit scoring efforts including her career high against Western Illinois on Saturday, Nov. 18. Woods scored a career-high 39 points on 60-percent shooting from the field while going 6-12 from three-point range in the Huskies' win over the Leathernecks. Woods also scored a team-high 20 points in NIU's loss at Iowa. Woods wasn't just an offensive threat as she grabbed 11 rebounds against WIU for a double-double and tallied seven rebounds at Iowa.
 
SEEING DOUBLE
Senior forward Kelly Smith's double-double against Chicago State on Monday, Nov. 20 was the third double-double by a Huskie this season. Her 23 points and ten rebounds each led the team in each of those individual categories in NIU's 80-59 win over the Cougars. Smith joins teammates Ally May and Courtney Woods as NIU women's basketball players to record a double-double after both did so against Western Illinois when Woods scored 39 and grabbed 11 rebounds with May scoring ten and grabbing 16 boards.
 
LENDING A HELPING HAND
NIU's starting backcourt of Mikayla Voigt and Myia Starks set career highs in assists in back-to-back games. Starks and Voigt each recorded nine assists in the Huskies' win at Chicago State. They combined to lead the team on the way to NIU totaling a season-high 24 assists on 33 made baskets. The previous contest against Western Illinois, the Huskie duo each tallied six assists.
 
MONEY FROM THE CHARITY STRIPE
Mikayla Voight, who entered the season as NIU's career leader in free throw percentage (.853) is 14 points ahead of second place Stephanie Raymond (2003-07) after going 5-6 (.833) from the line this season after getting to the line for the first time this season at Chicago State. She boasted a career-high 89.2 percent free throw percentage last year, hitting 74 of 83 free throw attempts.
 
UPPING THE PRESSURE
In their 80-59 win at Chicago State, the Cougars committed 24 turnovers, the most by an NIU opponent this season. The Huskies forced 14 of those turnovers on steals led by Mikayla Voigt and Myia Starks who had five apiece.
 
MAY I HELP YOU
Ally May also established career highs in several categories including points (10), field goals made (5), field goal attempts (11) and rebounds (16) in NIU's win over Western Illinois. It was also her first career double-double.
 
SCORE ONE FOR THE HUSKIES
NIU leads the MAC and ranks 24th in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 83.0 points a game. The Huskies tallied their second 90-point effort of the season, tallying 96 in their win over Western Illinois. NIU opened the season scoring 93 points at Eastern Illinois and posted 80 at Iowa. Last season, NIU averaged 85.1 points a game, which led the MAC and ranked fifth in the nation.
 
LONG RANGE HUSKIES
NIU ranks 19th in the nation and second in the league in three-point fields goals made, shooting 57-of-157 from beyond the arc, hitting 9.5 a game. The Huskies are fourth in the conference in three-point field goal percentage, hitting 36.3 percent of their shots from three-point territory. Courtney Woods leads the team with 19 made three pointers this season and has taken a team-high 49 for a three-point percentage of 38.8 percent, which ranks 177 in the country.
 
POSITIVE RATIO
The Huskies rank third in the MAC and 22nd in the country in assists per game. NIU ranks third in the conference and 48th in the country in assist-turnover ratio with a 1.21. Mikayla Voigt leads the Huskies, ranking second in the MAC and 29th in the nation with a 3.56 assist to turnover ratio.
 
FRESHMAN FIRST
Freshman Gabby Nikitinaite was one of three NIU players to finish in double figures at Iowa. The Orpington, Kent, UK native finished the day with a career-high 11 points, going 4-for-17 from the field, including 3-of-7 from three-point land.
 
DOUBLE TROUBLE
The Huskies had a season-high five players finish in double figures in their win over Western Illinois. Last season, NIU accomplished the feat seven times and Saturday's quintet of double-digit scorers are the most since Jan. 25, 2017 when six Huskies finished in double figures against Kent State. Courtney Woods led the way with 39 points and Mikayla Voigt followed with 16. Kelly Smith and Janae Poisson tallied 14 and 11 points, respectively, while May finished with 11.
 
CARLSEN CLIMBING
Lisa Carlsen enters her third season as head coach of the NIU Women's Basketball team. She has a 35-32 record at NIU for a .522 winning percentage which ranks second to Rita Horky (1981-83), who finished with a .525 winning percentage (31-28). Carlsen is seventh all-time at NIU in wins and has a career record of 219-195 in 15 seasons as a head coach.
 
CASTRO'S DEBUT
Redshirt freshman Paulina Castro made her first career at NIU in the Huskies' game with Eastern Illinois. Castro sat out all of the 2016-17 season battling Hodgkins Lymphoma. She collected one rebound and one assist in 10 minutes of play.
 
FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING
Five Huskies saw their first action in NIU's season-opening victory at Eastern Illinois headlined by redshirt freshman Paulina Castro, who made her first career start for NIU. Riley Blackwell tallied eight points and grabbed three rebounds in nine minutes. Gabby Nikitinaite scored five points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out four assists. Nicole Orr, who sat out last year due to NCAA transfer rules scored four points in two minutes, while Errin Hodges played nine minutes.
 
TWENTY-ONE AND OVER
The Huskies are coming off a 21-12 record in 2016-17. It was NIU's first 20-win season since 1993-94 and the sixth in school history. The school record for wins in a season is 26 set in 1989-90 when the Huskies posted a 26-5 record.
 
SEEKING A POSTSEASON ENCORE
The Huskies, who made their first postseason appearance since 1995 when they participated in the 2017 Women's National Invitational Tournament, are looking to make it consecutive postseason appearances for the first time since 1994-95. NIU made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 1993-94 and 1994-95.
 
WELCOME NEWCOMERS
NIU head coach Lisa Carlsen welcomed two new members to her staff for this year. Maria Kasza joined NIU as an assistant coach, while Quinn Rear was added to the staff as director of basketball operations. Kasza came to NIU after spending the last five seasons as an assistant at Michigan Tech. Rear joined the NIU staff following two seasons as a graduate assistant at Truman State.
 
FOREIGN HUSKIES
Freshman Gabby Nikitinaite, a native of Orpington, Kent, United Kingdom, is the second foreign player on the Huskie roster. She joins Courtney Woods, who hails from Brisbane, Australia.
 
HALL CALL
Huskies women's basketball legend Angela Lockett was inducted into the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 6, 2017. Lockett, who starred for the Huskies from 1990-92, 1993-95 was a scoring and rebounding force who helped guide the NIU women's basketball team to the postseason in each of her four seasons on the court. Seventh on NIU's all-time scoring list, she also led NIU in rebounding for four seasons, closing her career with 1,014 career boards, the third best mark in school history.