DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team wraps up its current seven-game road trip Thursday night with a 7 p.m. tip-off at Milwaukee.
 
NIU (3-4) is 3-3 over the first six games of this stretch after splitting its two games at the South Point Shootout in Las Vegas last weekend. The Huskies set season-highs with 82 points in their 82-74 win over Tennessee Tech on November 29, shooting a season-high 44.6 percent from the field. Five Huskies scored in double figures led by Courtney Woods' (Brisbane, Australia/St. Margaret's) 23 points. The Huskies dropped their second game on November 30 to South Dakota 91-48.
 
Freshman guard Chelby Koker (Racine, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran) was named the Sixth Woman of the Tournament for the South Point Shootout after averaging 15.5 points per game and shooting 50 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from the three-point line. After scoring 14 points in NIU's win over Tennessee Tech, Koker made a season-high five three-pointers on her way to a game and season-high 17 points against South Dakota. The freshman is averaging nine points per game through her first seven games as a Huskie, shooting 38.7 percent from the three-point line.
 
The Huskies have shot 38.2 percent from the three-point line over the last three games. NIU made nine threes in back-to-back games against Purdue and Tennessee Tech. As a team, NIU is fifth in the MAC in both three-point shooting at 32 percent and three-pointers made with 7.9 per game. In two games last weekend, freshman Koker and sophomore Mikayla Brandon (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) were a combined 10-for-19 from the three-point arc. Brandon is 6-for-8 from long distance over her last three games after scoring a career-high nine points against South Dakota.
 
NIU leads the all-time series with Milwaukee 11-9, winning the last meeting 114-104 in double overtime at the Convocation Center on November 16, 2016. Ally Lehman scored a Convocation Center record 48 points, which was also a program record and tied the Mid-American Conference single-game record at the time. She also had a career-high 21 rebounds. The Panthers are 2-5 on the season after a 74-46 loss at Columbia last Saturday. Milwaukee is averaging 60 points per game with Brandi Bisping and Sydney Staver leading the Panthers in scoring with 8.3 points per game.
 
The Huskies return to the NIU Convocation Center December 19 and 20 to host the Compass Challenge. NIU takes on Eastern Illinois on December 19 at 7 p.m., then either Southern Illinois or Western Illinois on December 20 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the Compass Challenge, and for all remaining home games including flex passes, are available now at NIUHuskies.com/tickets or by calling the NIU Ticket Office at 815-753-PACK (7225).
 
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