Gena Stubbs has every reason to be psyched for this game.

When the NIU women’s basketball team walks onto the floor of 2-20 Detroit’s gymnasium Wednesday, the junior forward will carry out her 997 career points in hopes of breaking the 1,000-point milestone.

But that’s not all that the 5-foot-8 Stubbs holds as motivation to assist in lifting NIU’s 9-13 record.

After standout performances in the Northwestern and Marquette games last week, Stubbs was named North Star Conference player of the week Tuesday.

Stubbs sunk 14 points, blocked two shots and snatched a steal for NIU during its 82-67 loss to Northwestern last Tuesday. She led the Huskies to a 69-67 victory over Marquette Saturday, scoring 18.

“I think it’s significant for Gena to get that honor in a week she’s looking to score her 1,000th point,” said women’s coach Jane Albright.

“That’s a high honor for a junior,” Albright added. “She had an outstanding game at Marquette and was our player of the game based on our performance chart. Gena adds an explosive element to our team.”

Stubbs is the second NIU player to receive the player of the week honor, as sophomore Carol Owens was named for the last week of November.

If Stubbs follows through with her three-point task, this year’s match against the Lady Titans will be a mirrored landmark of last year, when senior Shelly Roberts also surpassed the 1,000 point stretch against Detroit.

But NIU is hoping for a switch of roles when the final decision is made this season, as the Huskies bowed to Detroit 88-66 last year despite Roberts’ 28-point effort.

Last season, NIU was plagued with 25 turnovers to Detroit’s 12, and could only hit 27-of-65 from the floor, while the Lady Titans bordered a 50 percent field goal stat.

Starting the second 20 with a 45-32 deficit, the Huskies were unable to close Detroit’s dominating lead. Cutting the range to a 10-point span was the closest NIU came to seeing a win.

This year’s story should be different, as NIU will walk onto the floor holding four top-10 scorers in the NSC, in which they hold a 3-3 record.

The Huskies will hold as forces sophomore Lisa Foss (number two in NSC), who leads the team in scoring with 18.6 points per game and ranks seventh in the country with a .867 free throw percentage, plus Carol Owens (number seven) with 15 ppg, Stubbs (number eight) scoring 14.1 ppg and Tammy Hinchee (number 10) adding 12.8 ppg.

Hinchee leads the team with 9.2 rebounds a match and is second to Foss from the line with a .865 average. Foss will attempt to get back into her previous 48-game streak of double-digit scoring, which she broke Saturday after scoring seven.