The NIU women’s basketball team heads to Ohio this weekend in preparation for Crunch Time—1990.

Coming off the loss to No. 5-ranked Tennessee on Monday night, the Huskies are in a must-win situation as they play two crucial North Star Conference games Friday and Sunday.

First, the Huskies take on the University of Akron tonight at 7 p.m., then they move over to Cleveland State University for a Sunday match-up to kick off the second half of the 1990 NSC schedule.

“All of the pressure is on these games,” head coach Jane Albright said. “Our best ball is ahead of us.”

It is going to be tough to improve on NIU’s first half performance in the NSC, but the Huskies are going into every game with the thought that any loss at this point could damage their hopes for an NCAA tournament berth.

“Like I said before,” Albright said. “Every game is like a tournament game. We need to play like we are capable and worry about one game at a time.”

NIU finished the first half on top of the NSC being the only team with an unblemished record at 6-0. The perfect conference mark led the Huskies to an overall 17-4 record and the No. 23 ranking in both the AP and USA Today polls.

Akron and Cleveland State were both victims of the NIU No. 1 scoring attack in the nation. The Huskies pounded on Akron 108-78 and doubled CSU’s score, 96-48. Those two victories were indicative of the lopsided scores in the NSC contests. NIU combined to beat the six NSC foes by a margin of 26.2 points a game.

Both opponents are 2-4 and in fourth place in the NSC and under the .500 mark overall. The Akron Zips come into the game at 8-11. Led by post players Stacy Burrier and center Kerry Mossburg, averaging 15.6 and 15.4 points per game respectively, the Lady Zips are coming off a win at UIC. CSU (7-12) is stuggling as of late. The Vikings have dropped three in a row including losses at UIC and DePaul. CSU is led by 6-foot-0 junior Debra Taylor, the top rebounder in the NSC (11.1 rpg) and fourth in league scoring behind NIU’s Carol Owens (21.1), Tammy Hinchee (20.8) and Lisa Foss (19.2).