DeKALB, IL - The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team closed out the regular season Saturday afternoon with a 69-49 win over the Central Michigan Chippewas at the NIU Convocation Center on Senior Day. The Huskies finish the Mid-American Conference season 11-9 and will be the number four seed in the MAC Championship in Cleveland starting Wednesday.
 
"Senior Day is always a pretty emotional day," said head coach Lisa Carlsen. "You have to prepare for 40 minutes of basketball. We had four players that were stepping on the floor here at home for the last time. Any time you can stay in the moment as well as possible during the course of the game is a good thing."
 
Junior forward A'Jah Davis became NIU's single-season rebound leader in the victory. Needing eight rebounds to break Ally Lehman's record of 329 from the 2015-16 season, Davis pulled down a game-high 16 to give her 338 for the year. She also increased her record-breaking double-double tally for the season with her 23rd on Saturday, scoring 10 points.
 
"If there's a loose ball in the bottom half of the lane, A'Jah's going to come up with it," Carlsen said. "Her development as a player, not just rebounding but scoring as well, has been tremendous. She hasn't shied away from the fact that we run our offense through her. Her numbers speak for themselves."
 
Janae Poisson (Matteson, Ill./Marian Catholic) led NIU with 18 points, making 7-of-14 shots from the field. Poisson provided a majority of the Huskies' offense in the first half, making four threes to score 14 points as NIU took a 19-16 halftime lead.
 
NIU (14-14, 11-9 MAC) used a 9-0 run in the third quarter to take a 30-19 lead at the 6:55 mark. Poisson started the run with a layup and Nia Ahart (Detroit, Mich./Colgate) made her second three of the day to put the Huskies up 11. The Huskies advantage grew to 17 with an 11-2 run over 3:20. Five different NIU players scored in the run that put NIU up 41-24. Davis started the run with a three-point play with 5:34 to go and Sidney McCrea (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) put the exclamation point on the run with a pair of free throws.
 
Central Michigan (4-25, 2-18 MAC) used a 7-0 run in the fourth quarter, sparked by a Hanna Knoll triple, to get within 10 45-35 with 8:18 to go. An Ahart layup and a Paulina Castro (Elgin, Ill./Harvest Christian) started a 9-0 NIU run midway through the final quarter, as a pair of Jayden Marable (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) layups put the Huskies up 20 61-41 with 2:49 to play.
 
Following Saturday's game, NIU honored its four departing seniors from this season's team. Errin Hodges (Pontiac, Ill./Evansville Central [Ind.]) started the game and scored NIU's first point at the foul line. Mikayla Brandon (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) had four points, eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Castro made two threes for six points. Ahart had 12 points and four rebounds.
 
NIU shot 39.7 percent from the field, holding the Chippewas to 27.6 percent and under 20 percent from the three-point line. The Huskies outrebounded Central Michigan 53-30, turning 16 offensive rebounds into 18 second chance points. Knoll led Central Michigan with 23 points.
 
"The dynamics of our group are interesting because we have people who have been around and understand what it takes to make a run in Cleveland," Carlsen said. "We have people who have gone to Cleveland before and not necessarily had success, and then there are other players that haven't stepped on the floor there. We will rely heavily on our leadership and our veterans to keep everybody grounded. When we do what we can do, we'll have a chance to have some success."
 
NIU will take on the number five seed Ball State in the MAC Championship quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 9 at approximately 12:30 p.m. CT at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+. Tickets to the MAC Championship can be purchased at the following link.
 
—NIU—