CLEVELAND – Before the season began, Northern Illinois University women's basketball head coach
Lisa Carlsen and her team adopted the hashtag #RestoretheGlory as the team's mantra for the 2016-17 season.
The hashtag was a nod to the 60
th Anniversary season of women's basketball at the school, and to the Huskie teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s that set a standard of winning 20 games, playing for conference championships and advancing to postseason play.
After defeating Western Michigan, 83-55, Friday in the semifinals of the Mid-American Conference Tournament in Cleveland, the 2016-17 Huskies have turned a hopeful hashtag into reality.
"An opportunity to play in the championship game for any team is great, but like you mentioned, it's not a place that NIU has necessarily found themselves very often [recently]," Carslen said. "We have talked about restoring the glory. I've had the opportunity to talk to some of the alums who were part of the good times, especially in the '90s, and it means a lot to them to see us play well."
In its first game in Cleveland on Wednesday, NIU (21-10) had to stage a furious comeback, overcoming a 22-point deficit to defeat Ohio in the semifinals, 72-71.
There was no such drama Friday as the Huskies opened an 18-10 lead at the end of the first quarter, outscored the Broncos 26-14 in the second to take a 20-point halftime lead, and kept the pressure on in the second half to coast to the 83-55 victory.
With the win, NIU will play in the MAC Championship game for the first time since 1982, according to the MAC record book. However, NIU will play in the game with an NCAA Tournament berth on the line for the first time ever as the Huskies look to lock up their first NCAA bid since 1995, when they won the Midwestern Collegiate Conference title. NIU has not played in the MAC Championship game since rejoining the league in the 1997-98 season.
Five Northern Illinois University players scored in double figures Friday versus Western Michigan, led by
Courtney Woods who scored 19 points. All-everything guard
Ally Lehman matched her stat line from the tournament's first game with 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and added four steals. Lehman broke the NIU single season and career records for assists in the contest. With her fifth assist – a dish to Woods for a three – she broke the single season record of 201 set by Stephanie Raymond in 2006-07. Her final assist of the game broke the career mark of 526 held by Denise Dove (1987-91).
"I've coached some talented players before, but I don't know that anybody makes the people around her better than Ally has made them this year," Carlsen said. "She's a fiery competitor and she's fierce on the court, and she'll run through the wall and do anything you ask. I think any time you have a player like that, you have a chance."
While Lehman's contributions to the team success are well-documented, perhaps the most important run of Friday's win came with the team's leading scorer, rebounder and point guard on the bench with two fouls starting at the 7:30 mark of the second quarter with NIU leading 24-14. Less than three minutes later, the Huskies had doubled their lead to 20 as Woods connected on a three-pointer and freshman
Janae Poisson hit a pair of threes with Smith adding three points during the 12-2 run.
NIU went ahead by as many as 23, at 39-16, in that quarter en route to its 20-point halftime advantage.
"That was probably really the turning point in the game," Carlsen said. "There's not been very many times that we've played without Ally for extended periods of time. It was one of those things where you take Ally out, but [if] they start making a run, you've got to put her back on the floor. And to her teammates' credit they really did a great job of sustaining that lead and even building on it."
The Huskies kept the pressure on in the second half, matching Western Michigan offensively to prevent the Broncos from making a run. WMU never got closer than 18 points in the second half. When WMU's Meredith Shipman hit a three pointer with 5:44 to play in the third quarter to cut the lead to 18,
Mikayla Voigt answered with a three and NIU did not look back in notching its 21
st win of the season.
Poisson (10 points),
Kelly Smith (15 points) and
Cassidy Glenn (10 points) joined Lehman and Woods in double figures, while Glenn led NIU in rebounding with nine. The Huskies put five players in double figures for the first time since January 14.
NIU shot 44.4 percent from the field for the game and made eight-of-13 shots in the critical second quarter. WMU finished with a 30.8 percent field goal percentage for the game.
NIU, which came into the tournament as the No. 4 seed, takes on the sixth-seeded Toledo Rockets Saturday in the MAC Championship game. Toledo defeated Buffalo, 72-65, in the second semifinal to set up the rubber match in the season series between the teams as they split games – each winning on the other's home floor – during the regular season.
The game tips off at 10 a.m. Central and will be televised on CBS Sports Network. In DeKalb, listen on WLBK AM 1360/FM 98.9 or on the TuneIn app.
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