Women's Basketball | March 7
CLEVELAND - The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team makes its fifth appearance in the Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals in seven years on Wednesday afternoon, taking on the Kent State Golden Flashes at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland at approximately 12:30 p.m. CT.
The game will be televised on ESPN+ and will be broadcast locally on 94-9 WDKB, the NIU Huskies app and the Varsity Network app.
NIU (16-13) closed the regular season last Saturday at Kent State, falling 73-58. Janae Poisson (Matteson, Ill./Marian Catholic) led the Huskies with 12 points off the bench, capping a regular season that saw the graduate guard earn her second MAC Sixth Player of the Year award. Poisson averaged 10.9 points per game as a reserve this season, becoming the second player in MAC history to earn Sixth Player of the Year twice. She is in the top-five in the league in three-pointers per game at 2.38 and three-point percentage at 35.8.
The Huskies had two players earn All-MAC honors on Tuesday in senior forward A'Jah Davis (DeKalb, Ill./Montverde Academy [Fla.]) and senior guard Chelby Koker (Racine, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran). Davis earned a spot on the All-MAC First Team after leading NIU with 16.0 points per game and the MAC in rebounding at 12.5 boards per game. She is third in the nation in rebounding and fifth in double-doubles with 21. Last Saturday Davis became the sixth Huskie in program history to reach 1,000 career rebounds, breaking her own single-season rebound record with 351 in the process. Davis had 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for her NIU career-leading 52nd double-double, moving her to 1,003 career boards.
Koker had 10 points at Kent State. This is the third straight season she has been named to a postseason All-MAC team and the second team she has earned All-MAC Second Team accolades. Koker is second on the team in scoring at 15.9 points per game and is the MAC's second-leading three-point shooter at 40.6 percent. Over the last eight games Koker is shooting over 55 percent from the three-point arc.
NIU went 6-3 in the second half of the league season to close with an 8-10 MAC record. The Huskies have averaged 75.8 points per game over the last nine games, making 9.0 threes per game. NIU is 8-0 this season when scoring over 75 points this season, reaching over 80 points in wins over Bowling Green, Ball State and Akron who are all in the tournament field.
Kent State (20-9) closed the regular season winning five of its last six games. Casey Santoro led the Golden Flashes in last Saturday's win with 19 points and added seven rebounds and four assists. Katie Shumate, an All-MAC Third Team selection on Tuesday, had 17 points and seven rebounds. Shumate leads Kent State with 12.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
Wednesday's game is the third meeting between the Huskies and Golden Flashes in the MAC Tournament and the first since 2008. NIU defeated Kent State in the 2007 quarterfinals 72-68 with Stephanie Raymond leading the Huskies with 25 points.
The winner of Wednesday's game will take on the winner of the Toledo/Buffalo quarterfinal in the first semifinal on Friday, March 10 at 9 a.m. CT.
—NIU—
