When the NIU women’s basketball team takes on Northwestern tonight in Evanston, it will try to establish one thing—tempo.

In a battle between teams with the opposite offensive philosophies, how much success the Huskies have might be determined by how many chances they get to run the court.

While the Wildcats prefer to walk the ball up the court, NIU hopes to see tonight’s game turn into another Fastbreak Fest.

Speaking of which, NIU coach Jane Albright hopes her Huskies can continue playing at the level that earned them their first-ever title of their own Fastbreak Fest tournament this past weekend. Albright called the tourney win, and the school’s first-ever win over a Top 20 team (16th-ranked N.C.State), the highlight of her four-plus year stay at NIU.

“I’m hoping we can maintain the same intensity level that we had here over the weekend,” Albright said. “Our work ethic has just been super and it peaked on Sunday (championship game). I don’t want the Northwestern game to be an emotional letdown. I want the team to keep its eyes on the goals for our program. We’re not satisfied yet.”

And the Huskies won’t be any closer to satisfaction unless they can turn the tables on Northwestern. Since Albright’s arrival at NIU, her teams are 1-3 against the Wildcats with NIU’s only victory coming in the form of an 84-83 decision in 1984-85. Overall, the series is even at eight wins apiece.

“This will be a big test for us,” Albright said. “What this weekend should have done for us is give us a confidence boost, but not an overconfidence. Northwestern had one of the top recruiting classes in the nation, and they set up a really good half-court offense. They’re going to want to slow us down.”

What makes Northwestern’s style of play seem a bit unusual is that the Wildcats like to shuffle a lot of people in and out of games. Most teams that use a lot of players do so because they like to play at an uptempo pace.

In fact, the Wildcats, off to a 1-3 start, have some key contributors that come off of the bench. Like top scorer Michele Savage (19.8 points-per-game, 6.3 rebounds-per-game), a 6-foot-1 freshman forward, who has yet to start a game. And Kelly Cole (11 ppg), who has started only once. And freshman Nancy Kennelly (7.8 ppg and a team-best 6.3 assists-per-game), who won Illinois’ Ms. Basketball honor last year as top gun for 35-0 Class AA state champ Maine West High School.

Meanwhile, junior center Carol Owens has been most consistent for NIU, leading the team in both scoring (22 ppg) and rebounding (10.3 rpg). In addition, Albright has got good mileage at guard, where Denise Dove (10.5 ppg) has had to play from start to finish, and Kris Weis (11 ppg as a starter) has taken over for the redshirted Lisa Foss.