After its 67-63 win against the Loyola Ramblers, Friday, NIU women’s basketball will look to continue it’s momentum against the Indiana State Sycamores, tonight in Terra Haute, Indiana.

The Sycamores (4-2) are looking for their third win in a row after coming off of a close 48-46 road win against St. Louis University. They come into the game unbeaten at home.

Indiana State is averaging 55.8 points per game and is led by sophomore forward Racheal Mahan. Mahan had 23 points, including five 3-pointers, in the Sycamores last game against St. Louis.

NIU head coach Kathi Bennett said the Huskies will have to be well prepared in order to face Indiana State.

“Indiana State is a guard-dominated team with quickness and three-point shooting ability,” Bennett said. “They play very hard and are scrappy. They don’t lose on their home court either. For us to win we have to be locked in on the scout, we have to be ready to play 40 minutes.”

The Huskies (3-3) are coming into the game with a road record of 1-2 and are averaging 60.5 points per game.

Freshman forward/center Mckenzie Hoelmenn is starting to find her way in the Huskies squad, playing well in NIU’s win against Loyola. Hoelmann put up six points and two rebounds in her 17 minutes of play.

Hoelmenn said the win against Loyola really gave the Huskies confidence coming into this game.

“They [Loyola] were a really good team, so beating them was very exciting for us,” Hoelmenn said. “One of the positives was we had our lows in the game but we kept our heads up and just fought through it to come out with the win.”

Offensively the two teams match up well. The Huskies have the edge in field goal percentage with a 44.7 team average while the Sycamores are shooting a team average of 38.4 percent. NIU also has a slight edge in three point percentage shooting 36.5 percent from behind the arc while Indiana State is shooting 32.2 percent.

Hoelmenn said the Huskies will need to defend Sycamores 3-point shooting.

“We know who their shooters are so we will need to get out on them,” Hoelmenn said. “Then watching the back door on the posts, they have good post players so we will need to do a good job defending those specifically. If we do those I think we will do well.”