Women's Basketball | March 8

DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team takes on the Ball State Cardinals Wednesday at approximately 12:30 p.m. CT Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference Championship at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
 
NIU (14-14) finished the regular season winning five of its last seven games to earn the four-seed in this week's tournament. This is NIU's highest seed since 2017, when the Huskies took a four-seed all the way to the championship game. The Huskies are coming off a 69-49 win over Central Michigan on Senior Day last Saturday. Janae Poisson (Matteson, Ill./Marian Catholic) led NIU with 18 points, going 7-for-14 from the floor with four three-pointers. Nia Ahart (Detroit, Mich./Colgate) added 12 points as A'Jah Davis (DeKalb, Ill./Montverde Academy [Fla.]) had her 23^rd double-double of the season with 10 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.
 
Davis, Poisson, and Chelby Koker (Racine, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran) all earned All-MAC honors on Tuesday. It is the first time in program history the Huskies have had three All-MAC selections in one season. Davis set NIU single-season records with 338 rebounds and 23 double-doubles this year. She leads the MAC in rebounding with 12.1 per game while averaging 16.5 points per game. Poisson led the league in the regular season with 2.75 three-pointers per game, making 77 in 28 games. Koker averaged 17.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game in 16 games this season.
 
The Huskies are second in the MAC in rebounding, averaging 41.82 rebounds per game. That puts NIU 23^rd in the country in rebounding. The Huskies had their largest rebound margin of the season last Saturday when they outrebounded Central Michigan by 23, 53-30. It was the ninth time this season NIU had a double-digit rebound margin and the fifth time it had at least 50 rebounds in a game. NIU is 12-5 this season when outrebounding its opponent.
 
Ball State (18-11) closed the regular season on Saturday with a 92-58 win over Eastern Michigan. Thelma Dis Agustsdottir led the Cardinals with 24 points and eight rebounds as Ball State shot 49.3 percent from the field. The Cardinals are second in the MAC in field goal percentage at 43.5 percent and lead the league with 16.1 assists per game.
 
The two teams split their two meetings this season. Ball State won at the NIU Convocation Center 83-82 in overtime on Jan. 5. The Huskies won at Worthen Arena 77-72 on Feb. 26 with five players scoring in double figures led by Davis' 23 points and 13 rebounds. Wednesday's quarterfinal will be the fifth meeting all-time between NIU and Ball State in the MAC Tournament and the first since 2014.
 
The winner of the NIU/Ball State quarterfinal will take on the winner of the Toledo/Ohio game in the semifinals on Friday, March 11 at 9 a.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+. Tickets to the MAC Championship can be purchased at the following link.
 
--NIU--