With its Mid-American Conference Championship berth secured, the Northern Illinois University women’s basketball team looks to improve its seeding Saturday when it takes on the Western Michigan Broncos on Saturday at University Arena. Tip-off is at 12 p.m. CT with the game broadcast on ESPN+ and locally on WDKB 94-9 FM and the Varsity Network and NIU Huskies apps.

NIU (14-15, 7-10 MAC) enters the final day of the regular season tied with Western Michigan in seventh place. The Broncos currently hold the tiebreaker over the Huskies with their win in the first meeting between the two teams on Feb. 14 at the NIU Convocation Center. NIU can take the seventh seed Saturday with a win and could move into the sixth seed with a win and an Ohio loss.

The Huskies clinched their fifth MAC Tournament berth in the last six years Wednesday night with a 56-46 win at Miami. NIU used a 20-2 run in the second half to come back from 10 points down to go up 43-35 with 9:39 to go in the fourth quarter. Sidney McCrea (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) led NIU with 15 points, adding six rebounds, five assists and a career-high four steals. The was the first time in McCrea’s career that she had at least 10 points, five rebounds and five assists in a game. Over her last 10 games, the redshirt-junior guard is averaging 11.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.

The NIU bench trio of Laura Nickel (Marshall, Wis./Marshall), Grace Hunter (Monroeville, Ind./Bellmont) and Tara Stauffacher (Columbus, Wis./Wisconsin) combined for 26 points in Wednesday night’s victory over the RedHawks. Nickel had 11 points and a season-high seven rebounds. Hunter had nine points, going 3-for-7 from the three-point arc, and a career-high seven rebounds. Stauffacher was 2-for-4 from long range for six points. The senior is shooting 50 percent from the three-point line over the last four games. It was the seventh time this season NIU had at least 25 bench points, winning all seven games.

Western Michigan (12-16, 7-10 MAC) is coming off an 87-73 loss to Bowling Green in Kalamazoo on Wednesday. The Broncos shot 52 percent from the field but the Falcons turned 19 Western Michigan turnovers into 23 points. Senior guard Kaitlyn Zarycki led the Broncos with 22 points and five assists. She is second in the MAC in scoring at 18.6 points per game and leads the league in free throw percentage at 88.5 percent.

Following Saturday’s game, NIU will travel to Cleveland, Ohio for the MAC Tournament at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The quarterfinals will be played on Wednesday, March 13 with the Huskies’ opponent and game time to be determined.