If the NIU women’s basketball team plans to escape the NWIT with the championship trophy this weekend, the Huskies must overcome the good and the bad.

So far this season, tournaments and the NIU women’s basketball team seem to mesh. The 24-8 Huskies boast three tournament championships out of four possible attempts.

That’s the good news.

Out of their last four games, NIU has lost three of them.

That’s the bad news.

Based on this roller-coaster campaign, seventh-year coach Jane Albright is optimistic that her No. 3-seeded squad can overcome the struggling obstacle and put together three solid efforts this weekend.

“We’ve earned this bid to the NWIT,” Albright said. “We will be among an elite group of schools, and I hope we can walk away from there with a tournament.”

The sixth-seeded Lady Cougars from the University of Houston (19-10), who have won four of their last five games, pose the first threat to the Huskies’ quest. That first-round action commences Thursday with a 3 p.m. tip-off.

Houston’s strength lies within a trio of players—LaShawn Johnson, 6-3 center Darla Simpson and Arlene Brown. Johnson, a 5-7 junior guard, shoots 81.3 percent from the charity stripe and is the Lady Cougars’ leading scorer with 14.6 points per game.

Since NIU’s leading scorer, Lisa Foss, averages 24.9 points per game, the next obvious observation is that the Huskies average 84.3 points per game, while Houston checks in averaging 46 points per game.

That means Houston will definitely try to keep the running Huskies in a half-court battle.

“They’re very quick, very athletic and very talented,” Albright admitted. “They’re going to full court press and run the man-to-man, trying to slow the tempo.”

Against teams of a similar low-scoring nature (Wisconsin Green-Bay, UIC), the Huskies have generally been successful combatting the defensive styles. Yet, when teams hold NIU under 70 points, the Huskies post only a 2-3 ledger on the year.

“We just need to take care of the ball, and break their press at the start,” Albright said. “We need to control the boards and we’re hoping our depth off the bench can help.”

The Huskies are guaranteed a three-game tournament regardless of the outcome in the first round. Should NIU topple Houston, the Huskies would battle the winner of No. 2 seed Alabama-Birmingham (22-7) versus Indiana (16-12) for a 6 p.m. game Friday. A game-one loss would warrant a 3 p.m. contest.

The NWIT championship is scheduled for Saturday night at 8 p.m. WKDI (93.5 FM) and Channel 8 of DeKalb’s T.V. Cable System will broadcast all three-games live from Amarillo, Texas.