The women's basketball team has played at Northern Illinois nine times and only seen victory twice. But with the opening of Northern's new Convocation Center this year, head coach Tracy Roller is looking for a new development in Saturday's game.
"We haven't won there in a long time," Roller said. "This is a tough place for us and it would be big for us to go there and finally win."
The Cardinals (13-5, 7-1 Mid-American Conference) defeated the Huskies earlier this season in Muncie. But the Huskies have struggled on the road all season, winning just two road games.
However, at home, Northern Illinois is nearly unbeatable. It opened the year with a one-point victory over perennial top-25 Wisconsin in the first game ever played in the Convocation Center.
Behind the heroics of senior Tamara Bowie - who has hit layups in the final 10 seconds of the last two games to either tie or win the game - the Cardinals have rallied from a loss to Toledo to put together two straight MAC victories.
The latest was a come-from-behind victory over rival Miami at Worthen Arena in overtime Monday.
Junior Johna Goff led the Cardinals with 24 points and six assists as the Cardinals remained in a tie for second in the MAC West with Toledo.
Roller said the Cardinals cannot afford to is fall behind early and struggle on offense. Considering the Cardinals current troubles with playing at Northern, Roller said the team would be much more hard-pressed to be able to use its last-minute efforts to pull out victories.
Junior Jennifer Youngblood - a preseaon All-MAC selection - leads the Huskies (9-10, 5-3). She is one of the country's top free throw shooters, shooting better than 91 percent and is third in the MAC in field goal percentage.
With a schedule that has the Cardinals playing four games in eight days, Roller emphasized the importance of the Cardinals being able to keep their composure. After winning the first two of the four, she said she could not be happier with the way it started and it is exactly the way the streak needed to start.
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