DEKALB, Ill. – The Western Michigan women's basketball team will begin its final push towards the postseason at Northern Illinois Wednesday, February 14, at 12:00 PM ET. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
NIU currently has an 11-11 record (4-6 MAC) and has won two straight contests overall. Most recently, the Huskies defeated Ball State 76-71 in overtime and beat Georgia Southern 91-84 in the MAC-SBC challenge. In NIU's win over Ball State, Sidney McCrea led all scorers with 17 points after shooting 6-12 from the field and 3-7 from distance. McCrea, a redshirt junior, is averaging a career best 8.9 points per game and is shooting a career best 42% from downtown. Later in last Saturday's contest against Georgia Southern, the Huskies would earn a 91-84 win after Jayden Marable scored a career-high 26 points.
WMU enters the matchup with a 9-12 record (4-6 MAC) and is looking to snap a two game losing streak against the Huskies. Last time out, the women's basketball team dropped its Saturday contest against Appalachian State 78-68. Graduate student guard Kaitlyn Zarycki led all scorers with 22 points after shooting 9-15 from the field and 4-4 from the free throw line. Defensively,
Gabi Saxman led all players with six steals.
Last time out against Appalachian State, sophomore De'Ahna Richardson continued her exceptional play of late by adding 19 points, which set a new career high and added seven rebounds. Entering Wednesday's matchup, Richardson is averaging 14 points per game and has shot 47% from downtown over her last three games.
As for Saxman, her six swipes against App State allowed the senior to become the third player in program history to record at least six steals in three separate contests for the Brown and Gold. Saxman now has 115 steals and is 21 steals from tying (Michelle Fortier 1990-93) for the 18th most steals in program history (136 steals).
WMU's leading scorer Zarycki would score a game high 22 points against App State, which propelled her to 392 points on the season (which is the 23rd most points scored in a single season for WMU). Currently, Zarycki is averaging 18.7 points per game which is the 38th best scoring average in the nation and is second in the MAC. Additionally this season, she is shooting 51.6% from the field, 42.9% from distance, and 90.9% from the free throw line. As of this afternoon, Zarycki's shooting splits sets her apart as the only player in NCAA Division I women's basketball to average 50/40/90 splits while ranking inside the top 50 in scoring average, outside of Ayoka Lee (KSU).
MAC Tournament Outlook
With eight conference games remaining for the Brown and Gold, the WMU and NIU will square off for the first time this season with both teams battling for possession of the sixth seed in the MAC standings. WMU has a 4-6 MAC record and occupies the seventh seed entering Wednesday's matchup. The Broncos trail the fourth-seeded Buffalo Bulls by 2.5 games and the fifth-seeded Bowling Green Falcons by 1.5 games. As for NIU, the Huskies possess the sixth seed with an identical record as the Broncos.
For all things WMU women's basketball, make sure to follow the team on Instagram @wmu_wbb, Twitter @wmu_wbb, and Facebook @westernmichiganwomensbasketball.
