Saturday’s double-feature at the Convocation Center begins at 1 p.m. when a pair of first-place teams meet for MAC division bragging rights.

The NIU women’s basketball team (10-9 overall, 5-1 MAC) is currently locked in a three-way tie for first place in the MAC West and will face perennial conference power Bowling Green (17-2, 6-0). Bowling Green has won the MAC regular season championship each of the last four years.

Both teams come in playing their best basketball of the year as the Huskies have won four straight including their last three home games. Few teams in the nation are as hot as Bowling Green, however, as the Falcons have won their last 17 games after starting the season 0-2.

While this is clearly a big game against a tough foe for the Huskies, the team plans on keeping its cool leading up to and during the game. NIU head coach Carol Owens has been stressing the importance of each individual game and is urging her Huskies to view Bowling Green as just another opponent.

“It is a huge game, but I feel like Ohio was a huge game. They’re all huge at this juncture as we head into February,” Owens said. “We’re still a team that’s still getting better. We haven’t peaked yet. We’re working on a lot of things to try and be a more complete team.”

NIU will need that complete performance to have a chance at taking down the Falcons who are outscoring their opponents by 15.5 points a game this season.

Leading the potent Falcon offense is sophomore Lauren Prochaska who is averaging 17.2 points a game and shooting 94 percent from the free-throw line. Bowling Green shoots .785 from the line as a team.

“Our defense is the key for this game,” Owens said. “We can’t let them get to the line as much as they have been the past couple games. That’s our goal coming in.”

One of the Huskies’ biggest struggles early on in conference play has been their top threat inside, sophomore Ebony Ellis, getting into foul trouble early and seeing limited playing time as a result. The Falcons may look to attack the middle and send Ellis to the sideline because of this.

It may be NIU’s guard play and depth on the bench that dictate the Huskies’ fate. Over their current four-game winning streak, senior guard Jessie Wilcox has averaged 16.8 points a game and is coming off of a 19-point performance at Ohio.

The Huskies bench is also averaging 20.5 points a game over their last four.

“Everybody has a certain role. I think our bench has come up big for us,” Owens said. “It’s a good opportunity for us. We’ve just got to be ready to play.”