KALAMAZOO, Mich.- The Western Michigan women's basketball team picked up its fifth Mid-American Conference victory of the season with a 56-43 win over visiting Northern Illinois Saturday. The 43 points was the fewest allowed by WMU this season.
For the first time in MAC play this season, Western Michigan outrebounded its opponent, holding a 41 to 27 advantage over the Huskies. Marquisha Harris pulled down a team-best nine boards while Michelle O'Brien had eight caroms to go with eight points.
“Obviously we had been struggling in rebounding, but our team finally dominated a team statistically on the boards, and I am really happy about that,” said WMU head coach Shane Clipfell.
With a few players feeling under the weather, Western Michigan actually started a smaller lineup, going with Alex Morton, A.J. Johnson, Jazmine Windham, O'Brien and Jessica Jessing.
Sophomore Miracle Woods came off the bench to score a game-high 20 points and grabbed six rebounds. Johnson was WMU's next highest scorer with 14 points, totaling 10 of those in the first half on 4-of-4 shooting. Julia Henson dished out four of the team's eight assists.
Johnson's hot hand gave Western Michigan a jump out of the gates and WMU shot over 58 percent in the first half. The Broncos led by as many as 19, 31-12, with four minutes left in the first and enjoyed a 33-20 lead at the break.
Both Western Michigan and Northern Illinois scored 23 points in the second half, but the Broncos tightened up the defense and held NIU to 9-of-32 shooting (28.1%).
WMU also did a good job keeping the Huskies off the foul line, as NIU attempted just four free throws in the game.
"I said to the team at halftime, I'm going to tell you two things I haven't said in a long time - great job not fouling and putting them at the free throw line and great job on the boards. Those are two things for the most part we can control," Clipfell said.
With the win, WMU improves to 5-4 in the MAC and 9-11 on the season. Entering the game Saturday, four teams were tied for second in the MAC West standings with 4-4 records, behind league leader Central Michigan with an 8-0 conference record.
Western Michigan hits the road for a pair of tough MAC East matchups next week. The Broncos head to East leader Bowling Green on Wednesday and face Akron on Saturday.
