The NIU women’s basketball team will look to close out its current road trip on a high note tonight as it travels to Peoria to take on the Bradley Braves.

The Huskies (2-2) are looking to make the jump above .500 early on in their non-conference schedule, while the Braves (2-1) will look to avoid falling to that mark.

“Bradley is a pretty balanced team this year,” said NIU head coach Carol Owens. “They are a team that will double team us and give us different looks. We’ll just have to be prepared for anything.”

NIU is coming off of a dominant rebounding performance against Wagner in the Seton Hall Classic last weekend, out-rebounding the Seahawks 52-16, including 22 from sophomore Ebony Ellis.

The Huskies are out-rebounding their opponents by 10.5 boards per game this season while Bradley has grabbed 15 more boards per game than its opponents.

Ellis has been dominant both cleaning the glass and scoring thus far this season, leading the team with 12.3 rebounds per game as well as pouring in 12.5 points per game.

It will be a battle inside for much of the night, as Ellis will be matched up against Bradley redshirt senior Monica Rogers, who leads the Braves in rebounds per game and points per game, with 12.3 and 17.7, respectively.

NIU will have to address another lingering problem as well, as they have been plagued by turnovers early in the season. The Huskies are averaging 26.3 turnovers per game, compared with just 13.8 assists.

Owens is confident the turnovers will work themselves out, adding that the high turnover numbers can be common this early in a season.

“We still have some work to do in terms of taking care of the ball,” Owens said. “We’ve got to continue to get better, and to get that flow. We haven’t gotten that flow yet. It’s early, we’ve still got some things to work on. We’ve got to make better decisions with the ball to limit turnovers.”