Women’s basketball (2-2) will take its talents to the Southwest over Thanksgiving weekend.

The Huskies will travel to Las Cruces, N.M., for the Aggie Hotel Encanto Thanksgiving Classic this weekend. They will play New Mexico State (2-3) at noon Friday and Lamar (3-3) at noon Saturday.

The Huskies have won two of their last three games and are 2-2 on the season. They are 2-0 at home and 0-2 on the road this season.

Through four games, the Huskies are 11th out of 12 MAC teams in scoring offense (59.2); however, they have the No. 4 scoring defense in the conference (67.2).

The Huskies have spread the wealth on offense, as they have had three leading scorers in four games. The team has shown its ability to move the ball and is averaging 11.3 assists per game.

The Aggies are averaging 76.6 points per game and are giving up 74.2 points per game. They are led by Vanessa Garner, who is averaging 17.2 points per game, and they have four other scorers who are averaging 9.4 points per game or better.

“From a size standpoint, all their guards are 6-foot, so we’re gonna have to play big and play smart and really, again, protect the glass,” said NIU head coach Kathi Bennett. “They love to run, so we have to be great at transition D, and I just think we have to keep the mentality and worry about ourselves.

“[We] kinda found a groove against Bradley, and [we need to] continue offensively to get better and grow that and be consistent defensively, make sure that we’re keeping people in front and contesting shots and limiting them to one shot.”

The Huskies will square off with Lamar in the second game of the Classic. The Lady Cardinals are 3-3 on the season and 2-1 in away games.

The Lady Cardinals are scoring 71.2 points per game on average and are surrendering 68.7 points per game. They are powered by Dominique Edwards’ 18 points per game, and they have three other scorers averaging nine or more points per game.

“Lamar, they play a different style than what we’ve seen so far,” Bennett said. “[They] full-court pressure man, but run and jump and trap [defensively], and there’s no rhyme or reason. If we cross half court and they feel they want to run and jump and trap, they’ll do it. They’ll do it in the full court.

“They kinda feed off of their energy and how they’re scoring offensively. So, if they get on a run, we have to be ready for great pressure and kinda take that out. They’re a very aggressive team defensively, and we’re gonna have to handle [them]. The turnover count in that game is gonna matter.”

The fourth team in the Classic is the Milwaukee (1-2) Panthers, but the Huskies will not face them. The Huskies have had time off between each of their first four games, and the Friday and Saturday games this weekend will be their first back-to-back games of the season.

“It can be hard,” said junior guard Amanda Corral. “But I think those back-to-back days are gonna help us in the long run, for like the MAC Tournament, because you play back-to-back games like that. I think it’ll be good to test us for our mentality and see how we handle [it]…”