DEKALB, Ill. – After a thrilling victory over Toledo on Saturday afternoon, the Northern Illinois University women's basketball team hosts the Western Michigan Broncos at the NIU Convocation Center at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3.
The first 300 people to come to the NIU Athletics marketing table at the Convocation Center Monday night will receive a water bottle from Northwestern Medicine. Those that have tickets for when the game was originally scheduled on Jan. 30 will be able to use those tickets Monday night.
NIU (15-9, 7-5 MAC) bounced back from its loss at Miami Wednesday night with a 54-52 win over the Toledo Rockets on Saturday.
Mikayla Voigt's (Slinger, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) three-point play with 6.8 seconds remaining in regulation put the Huskies in the lead for good after Toledo used a 10-0 run late in the fourth quarter to take a 52-51 advantage. NIU forced 17 Rockets turnovers and turned them into 17 points.
Ally May (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) led the Huskies in scoring with 12 points, adding seven rebounds and tied a career-high with three blocks.
Riley Blackwell (Plainfield, Ind./Plainfield) had 11 points, going 5-for-7 from the field, with five rebounds and a team-high three assists.
The Huskies are 4-1 since the calendar flipped to February. NIU has had its two closest games this month, with a three-point overtime win at Eastern Michigan and Saturday's two-point win over Toledo. The Huskies have a +3.2 turnover margin in the last five games and have shot 42.2 percent from the field.
Myia Starks (Plainfield, Ill./Nequa Valley) has been a key part to NIU's success this month. In five games in February, Starks is averaging 14 points, four assists, and two steals per game. Starks had 19 points and seven assists in NIU's win at Ball State on Feb. 9. She led all scorers with 21 points and seven assists in the win over Bowling Green on Feb. 6. Starks has a 2.2 assist/turnover ratio in the last five games.
Western Michigan lost its fifth consecutive game Saturday, falling 70-56 at Ohio. Leighah-Amori Wool led the Broncos with 21 points, making five threes. Deja Wimby, Western Michigan's leading scorer at 12.7 points per game, was held to eight points but had 11 rebounds and four steals. The Broncos are averaging 60.6 points per game, last in the MAC, and have not scored over 70 points in a game since Jan. 5 at Bowling Green. Western Michigan is tied for sixth in the MAC in scoring defense at 65.5 points per game allowed. The Broncos lead the all-time series with NIU 38-23, with the two teams each winning 15 games in DeKalb. Western Michigan has won three of the last four meetings.
Tickets are available from the NIU Convocation Center Box Office, by calling 815-753-PACK (7225) or by visiting NIUHuskies.com/tickets.
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