A towering force awaits the NIU women’s basketball team when it travels to Kent State University tonight.

Mid-American Conference East leader Kent (13-7 overall, 8-2 MAC East) has a big size advantage inside when they take on the Huskies at 6 p.m. NIU post players Mickey Johnson and Jennifer Youngblood will match up against Kent’s 6-foot-4-inch senior Julie Studer, 6-foot-6 freshman Andrea Csaszar and 6-foot-1 senior Liz Beggs. Studer leads the Golden Flashes with 17.8 points per game and has shot 62 percent from the field during MAC games.

Kent’s inside game isn’t the only thing the Huskies (10-12, 6-3 MAC West) need to worry about, though. On the perimeter, the Flashes have senior guard Carrie Nance, who has connected on 43 percent of her attempts this winter. Freshman guard Christi Shibata also can hit from the outside and has drained a team-leading 37 three-point baskets.

“They’re a very complete team,” said Huskies coach Carol Hammerle. “They’ve got a real strong inside game and a real strong outside game. They don’t do anything fancy — they’re just fundamentally sound.”

The Flashes are undefeated in nine home games this season.

Hammerle added that Kent plays tough man-to-man coverage and it will be important that the Huskies’ inside-outside game clicks. That certainly wasn’t the case against Eastern Michigan last Saturday, when NIU struggled on the perimeter and Johnson got off only 7 shot attempts.

The defensive effort will be key, especially after Saturday’s disappointing performance. While the Huskies held Eastern Michigan under 60 points Saturday, Hammerle said several players struggled with basics such as staying down in stance. Hammerle hopes her team will produce the same defense it did when it upset Buffalo last week.

“Defensively, we have to play much like we did against Buffalo,” she said. “We need to pressure inside and keep Beggs from getting the ball.”