NIU is 4-8 ( 1-3). Miami is 5-7 ( 1-2). NIU is a veteran team, starting 3 Seniors and two Juniors. They swept us last year. They are probably disappointed with their record so far. This is a year where winning the close games is going to determine the MAC standings as most games will be decided late. So far NIU lost by 4 at CMU, lost by 1 at home to Ball State, won by 3 at Ohio, and lost by 21 at home to Toledo. They are led by Jr guard Chelby Kocher with 17.2 ppg and 6-1 Jr A’jah Davis with 15.4ppg and 11.4 rpg. Kocher is not fast, but has a great hesitation move and gets to the line frequently and shoots over 90% from there. Davis is also kind of slow, but is very strong and has good post up moves and used her body well to protect her shots.
This is certainly a winnable game for us, but I am sure NIU is counting on winning this game as well. The word among MAC coaches is that if you can shut down Peyton Scott, Miami cannot win. For the most part that has been true, but Monday night both Edyn Battle and Katie Davidson came up big and made Ohio play the price for sending so many defenders at Scott. Jayden Duckett also was the best post player on the court Monday. She will have her hands full with Davis tonight, as they might be the two strongest post players in the MAC ( Toledo brought in two new big girls this season).
It was an exciting and intense come from behind win tonight. They doubled Peyton Scott all night long and held her to 10 points, and also concentrated on taking the 3 away from Katie Davidson and the drive away from Edyn Battle, who were our leading scorers on Monday night. So tonight Ivy Wolf, who had only 3 points on Monday was open and scored 18 and Maddie Cluse, who had been slumping lately, finally banked in a 3 in the third quarter, then ended up with 15 points, all in the second half. Final score was 61-56, but we were behind for probably 35 of the 40 minutes in the game. This was our best defensive effort of the season, featuring a season high 17 steals and giving up the fewest points of the season. We still had 24 turnovers, so many careless passes being the main issue.
The ladies are now 2-0 in a marathon stretch of 6 games in 13 days. W are now 2-2 in the MAC, but it is worth noting that all 4 games have been at home and we play at home again Saturday at 1 vs WM ( men play NIU at 3:30, one admission gets you in for both games). With our first 5 MAC games at home( covid schedule adjustments) it could be very challenging for such a young team to be playing all those road games in just a few weeks. We do have quite a bit of depth, so hopefully Coach Hendrix can keep them fresh.