The Northern Illinois University women’s basketball team opens the final week of the Mid-American Conference regular season on Wednesday night at Miami in a pivotal game with conference tournament ramifications. Tip-off is at 6 p.m. CT with the game broadcast on ESPN+ as well as locally on WDKB 94-9 FM and the Varsity Network and NIU Huskies apps.

NIU (13-15, 6-10) enters the final two games of the regular season in eighth place, holding on to the final MAC Tournament berth by one game over Miami and Akron. A Huskies win on Wednesday night and an Ohio victory at Akron will punch NIU’s ticket to Cleveland for the fifth time in the last six years.

Redshirt-Junior guard Sidney McCrea (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) recorded her first career double-double last Saturday at Akron. McCrea led NIU with 12 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. She is the third Huskie to have a double-double this season joining Brooke Stonebraker (Versailles, Ohio/Versailles) and Jayden Marable (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook). McCrea has scored in double figures in five of the last eight games, averaging 11.9 points per game while going 19-for-19 from the free throw line.

The Huskies won the first meeting against the RedHawks 58-48 on Jan. 6 at the NIU Convocation Center. Down by two points entering the fourth quarter, NIU held Miami to 2-for-11 from the field and outscored the RedHawks 16-4 to rally for its first MAC win of the year. Marable led all scorers in that game with 15 points, adding six rebounds. Amber Tretter led Miami with 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

Miami (8-19, 5-11 MAC) is coming off a 66-47 loss at Bowling Green on Saturday. The RedHawks shot 40 percent from the field but were 6-for-20 from the three-point line. Cori Lard led Miami with 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Jadyn Scott, Miami’s leading scorer at 10.6 points per game, had 10 points against Bowling Green. The RedHawks are fifth in the MAC in scoring defense, allowing 64.0 points per game.

The Huskies close the regular season at Western Michigan on Saturday, March 9 at 12 p.m. CT.