It is not exactly the way the NIU women’s basketball team wanted to enter the MAC Tournament.

After Tuesday night’s loss to Western Michigan, the Huskies (12-15, 8-8 MAC) open the conference tournament as the eighth seed against ninth-seed Marshall (11-16, 7-9 MAC) at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at the Convocation Center.

The Huskies enter the showdown at the Convo Center losers of five of their last eight games.

“I think we need to play hard and believe in ourselves,” coach Carol Hammerle said. “We can’t get down or frustrated. I don’t think we can look to the past. We need to look ahead and believe in ourselves.”

In the last two seasons, the Huskies have made the semifinals of the conference tournament. But, the team was heading the other direction in both seasons when the conference tournament started up.

In the 2000-’01 season, NIU came into the tournament winners of three of its last four games and took that momentum through Central Michigan and Akron before falling to eventual champion Toledo in the semifinals.

Last season, Hammerle’s team used similar momentum for a tournament push.

The Huskies won six of nine games entering the tournament and disposed of Buffalo and revenged a tournament loss from a season earlier by beating Toledo.

The season eventually ended at a semifinal loss to Ball State.

This season, the Huskies have a different feel.

“It’s like we have to feel out the other team before we can play,” Hammerle said of her team’s slow starts.

The last time NIU hooked up with Marshall on Jan. 25, the Huskies escaped with an 81-74 win.

In that game, NIU forward Jennifer Youngblood tied a career-high with 28 points, and the Huskies got a season-high 21 from Lindsay Secrest.

NIU was able to pull out the victory despite a game-high 27 points from Thundering Herd star Ida Dotson and being outrebounded 39-30.

“We need to play with the defensive intensity that we had against Toledo,” Hammerle said.

If the Huskies were to beat Marshall, they likely would get a matchup with No. 1 seeded Toledo, which the Huskies upset on Saturday.

The Rockets earned a first round bye by accumulating a 19-8 record, including a 12-4 ledger in conference. That matchup would happen at 1 p.m. on March 12 at Cleveland’s Gund Arena.