YPSILANTI, MI – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team will take on the Eastern Michigan Eagles in the first round of the 2020 Mid-American Conference Women's Basketball Tournament Monday night at the EMU Convocation Center.
 
Tip-off is at 6 p.m. CT with the game being broadcast on ESPN+. It will also be available on WLBK 98.9 FM and 1360 AM.
 
NIU (11-18) wrapped up the regular season Saturday with an 86-79 win at Toledo, giving the Huskies their third win in the last four games. The Huskies held the Rockets without a field goal for over 11 minutes of the third and fourth quarters to build a 67-54 lead with 5:35 to play in the game. NIU made a season-high 23 free throws in the victory, going 19-for-20 in the second half with 12 straight makes in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
 
Redshirt-Senior forward Courtney Woods (Brisbane, Australia/St. Margaret's) claimed another NIU record on Saturday, playing in her 129^th game as a Huskie to pass Angela Lockett (1990-95) as the Huskies' all-time leader in games played. Woods scored a season-high 36 points Saturday afternoon with 16 points in the fourth quarter alone, adding six rebounds and four assists. It was her ninth 30-point effort in her career. Woods averaged 19.4 points per game in MAC play with 10 games of at least 20 points. She leads the MAC in free throw shooting at 85.3 percent and is fifth in the league in scoring at 18.5 points per game.
 
Freshman guard Chelby Koker (Racine, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran) tied a season-high with 17 points against Toledo. She set season-highs with a team-high eight rebounds in 31 minutes. It was her fifth double-figure scoring performance in the last eight games.
 
The Huskies finished the regular season second in the MAC in rebounding at 41.7 rebounds per game. NIU got there as a team, with only one Huskie among the top 20 in the MAC in rebounds in Woods at six per game. The Huskies are seventh in the country in defensive rebounds, averaging 30.4 per game. NIU was outrebounded just three times in MAC play and held a rebound margin of plus-seven or better six times.
 
Eastern Michigan (14-15) and NIU split the two regular season meetings with the home team winning each contest. The Eagles won in Ypsilanti 62-55 on January 29 with the Huskies winning 65-59 at the NIU Convocation Center on February 26. Eastern Michigan has won three of the four meetings between the two programs in the postseason, most recently in 2018 with an 84-77 win over NIU in the first round in DeKalb.
 
The Eagles ended the regular season with losses to Western Michigan and Central Michigan. On Saturday, Eastern Michigan led Central Michigan 41-27 at the half at McGuirk Arena but was outscored 49-28 in the second half in a 76-69 loss. Courtnie Lewis led the Eagles with 22 points as Areanna Combs added 21. Combs leads Eastern Michigan in scoring with 19 points per game adding six rebounds per game.
 
The winner of Monday night's game will take on second-seeded Ball State in the quarterfinals at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Wednesday, March 11.
 
--NIU--