After finishing last season 6-22, the NIU women’s basketball team was expecting an improvement.

This season the team has met their expectations by showing more progress than any other team in the Mid-American Conference.

The Huskies finished the regular season against Central Michigan with a 67-51 victory, which gave the Huskies a record of 14-15 overall and 10-6 in the MAC.

NIU found itself playing for either a fourth or fifth seed in the MAC tournament, as Saturday’s loss to Western Michigan assured the Huskies wouldn’t get a first round bye.

NIU responded to the pressure by beating CMU and keeping them to one win in the conference.

At first, CMU gave the Huskies a scare by opening the game with an 8-2 run. The Huskies then went on a 15-0 run to capture a 17-8 lead.

CMU eventually pulled within a point but would get no closer as NIU went into the half with a 38-24 lead.

NIU had four players score in double digits. Mickey Johnson led the way with 16 points, 10 of which were grabbed in the first half. Jennifer Youngblood was right behind with 11 first-half points and 15 overall. Also contributing were Kristan Knake with 13 points and Kim Boeding with 10.

The key to victory showed through the shooting percentages of each team, as NIU shot 51 percent and CMU shot 33 percent. The Chippewas only managed 51 points for the game, which made NIU coach Carol Hammerle happy.

“We played very good defense after the first few minutes,” Hammerle said. “We made some good adjustments and held them for a long time without scoring. We set the goal of keeping them to 25 points in the first half, and we did that.”

In the second half, NIU opened with a 7-2 run but allowed the Chippewas to get back into the game with a 13-3 run to bring the Huskie lead down to 8 points with 3:35 left in the game. However, Johnson scored four straight points to put away the game.

“I’m hoping this win gives us some confidence going into the tournament,” Hammerle said. “In the last couple of weeks, we seem like we’ve lost our defensive intensity. We’re winning but giving up too many points. It was good to get back to the system and shut down a team.”