Women's Basketball Faces Northern Illinois Wednesday at Rhodes Arena

January 25 | Women's Basketball

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Akron (9-11, 3-3) vs. Northern Illinois (7-11, 1-5)

Wednesday, Jan. 25 • 7 p.m. ET
Akron, Ohio • Rhodes Arena (5,500)

Game Notes (PDF)

Television: None

Radio: Fox Sports 1350 WARF-AM with Bill Morgan (play-by-play).

Live Stats: Available at www.GoZips.com. Live stats are free of charge.

Live Streaming: Available free of charge at www.MAC-Sports.com.

Akron Coach Jodi Kest (Slippery Rock, 1984): Is in her sixth season at Akron, posting a 69-103 (.401) mark. Kest is 295-256 (.535) in 19-plus seasons as a collegiate head coach. She was named the MAC Coach of the Year in 2010 after leading UA to a school-record 18 wins.

Northern Illinois Coach Kathi Bennett (UW Green Bay, 1986): Bennett is in just her second season on the bench at NIU, but is in her 18th year as a head coach overall. Her NIU record stands at 20-28 (.417), while she owns an overall record 298-196 (.603). Bennett previously coached at Evansville and Indiana.

The Series: NIU holds a 16-7 edge over Akron in the all-time series. UA has won three out of the last five against the Huskies.

Akron Battles Northern Illinois at Rhodes Arena
Akron takes on visiting Northern Illinois with the chance to win for the fourth time in the last five games Wednesday. Game time at Rhodes Arena is 7 p.m.

Storylines
• UA leveled its MAC record with a 78-70 road win over Ball State on Sunday. Sina King (16p, 10r) led the way with her second straight double-double, while Hanna Luburgh scored a game-high 18 points - 14 in the second half - on 6-of-12 shooting.
• The Zips are halfway through a stretch that sees them play six of eight games on the road. Akron is 3-2 so far during the difficult run.
• Junior Taylor Ruper ranks 19th in the country in 3-pointers made per game (2.9) and 13th nationally in 3-point percentage (.419). As a team Akron is 19th in scoring offense (74.9) and 24th in field goal percantage (.439)
• Through six conference games, Akron has five players (King, Mushington, Stubbs, Ruper, Luburgh) averaging double-figure points. Carly Young (9.3 ppg) is just off the 10-plus point mark in conference play.
• Kacie Cassell is averaging 5.0 assists per game in conference play. Natasha Williams has the conference's best assist/turnover ratio (2.1) in league games.
• The Zips lead the MAC in scoring offense, field goal percentage, 3-pointers made per game and assists, while ranking second in 3-point percentage and assist/turnover ratio. Senior Natasha Williams leads the conference in assist/turnover ratio (2.1) and is third in assists (4.3). Taylor Ruper is second in 3-pointers made per game (2.9) and third in 3-point percentage (.419). Sina King is third in free throw percentage (.813).
• Head Coach Jodi Kest needs just five wins to join the 300-club. She has amassed 295 wins over 19-plus seasons as a head coach. Kest needs just 11 wins to become Akron's all-time wins leader.
• Akron's three losses in MAC play have come by a combined total of 14 points and two of the losses came in overtime.

A Look at Northern Illinois
The defensive minded Huskies (7-11, 1-5) come into Wednesday's game off a 46-62 home loss to Buffalo. NIU is 3-6 away from home this season.

NIU averages just 55.2 points per game, but allows just 59.4 on the defensive end. Claire Jakubicek is the team's leading scorer at 9.8 points per game with Courtney Shelton prodicing 9.3 points per contest. NIU is limiting opponents to just 28.3-percent shooting from three.

Last Time Out Against Northern Illinois
UA captured its largest-ever MAC road win, downing NIU 72-43 on Feb. 5, 2011. Rachel Tecca led Akron with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Tayor Ruper added 11 points and Carly Young chipped in 10 points. The UA defense limited NIU to just 28.3-percent (15-of-53) shooting.

UA Takes Down Ball State, 78-70
Akron built a 12-point halftime lead and held on down the stretch thanks to excellent free throw shooting to beat Ball State, 78-70, on Sunday. Sina King tallied her second straight double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Hanna Luburgh scored a game-high 18, while Natasha Williams matched her career-high with 11 points. Ti'eshia Stubbs tallied a career-high nine boards. UA was 27-of-30 (.900) from the line in the game.

Balanced MAC Attack
UA has five players - Sina King (14.8), Jasmine Mushington (11.6), Hanna Luburgh (11.3), Ti'eshia Stubbs (10.3), and Taylor Ruper (10.2) - averaging double-digit points in conference play. Carly Young (9.3) is just below the 10.0 points per game mark.

Career Game 100 for Williams
Senior Natasha Williams is set to play in her 100th career game on Wednesday. Williams has made 30 starts in her career and is 27th in the country this season with a 2.0 assist/turnover ratio. Senior Jasmine Mushington played in her 100th career game on Dec. 18 against Youngstown St. Mushington scored 13 points and added four assists and five rebounds in the loss.

King of the Glass
Sophomore Sina King pulled down a career-high 16 rebounds in the loss at Ohio Jan. 19. Her previous career-high was 10 rebounds. It was the best individual rebounding performance since Rachel Tecca tallied 18 boards against Eastern Michigan (Jan. 22, 2011) last season. King then recorded her second-straight double-double (16p, 10r) in the win over Ball State on Sunday.

The Helping Hand
Akron shares the ball better than any other team in the MAC, leading the league with 15.5 assists per game. Akron's point guards are both ranked in the top five in the conference in assists. Natasha Williams averages 4.3 dimes per game and Kacie Cassell hands out 3.8 helpers per game.

Luburgh Heats Up at Buffalo
Hanna Luburgh got hot quick in the Jan. 7 win at Buffalo, scoring 13 of her 15 points in the games final 5:46. Luburgh shot 6-of-7 in the stretch and scored 13 of Akron's final 19 points. Luburgh is averaging 11.3 points per game and shooting 53.8-percent from the field in conference play this season.

Stepping Up
Since First-Team All-MAC player Rachel Tecca went down with a season-ending injury against Duquesne, several Zips have stepped up their roles on the court. Leading the way is sophomore Sina King who is averaging 14.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game in the 10 games since the Tecca injury. Ti'eshia Stubbs (6.1 rpg in the last 10 games) and Carly Young (5.7 rpg in the last 10 games) have also helped pick up the slack on the boards.

Zips Once Again Light it up from Distance
Akron had another excellent shooting night from behind the arc against Buffalo, making 11-of-25 (.440) 3-pointers. It was the 4th-best 3-point effort in program history, but was not UA's best effort of the season. Akron made 12 treys in the loss to Robert Morris on Dec. 21. The program record for threes in a game is 13, set in 2005 at Central Michigan. Taylor Ruper led the way against Buffalo, making 6-of-11 from deep. Ruper owns the single-game record with eight 3-pointers (vs. Ball State, Feb. 12, 2011) and drained seven in the Robert Morris game.

3-Point Prowess
The Zips have been lighting it up from downtown this season, making 35.4-percent of their 3-pointers. UA is the 31st best 3-point shooting team in the country. Taylor Ruper tops the team, making 41.9-percent (57-of-136) of her attempts from distance. Ruper is 13th in the country in 3-point percentage and 19th in 3-pointers made per game (2.9).

Program Reaches 1,000th Game
The Jan. 4 loss to Miami was contest number 1,000 for the Akron women's basketball program. The Zips played their first ever game - a 59-24 win over Kent-Tuscarawas - on Jan. 18, 1975. The game was the 800th all-time Division I game.

Road Warriors
Beginning with the Jan. 7 game at BGSU, UA is in a stretch that sees it play 6-of-8 games on the road. This could be a good thing, as Akron fared better on the road than at home last season in MAC play. UA posted a 2-6 league record at the JAR and a 4-4 mark on the road in 2010-11. The 4-4 road record matched the best ever for Akron in the MAC since 1999-2000. In non-conference play this year, Akron was 3-3 away from home and 3-5 at the JAR.

Firing on All Cylinders
The Zips have shot better than 40.0 percent from the field in all but five games and better than 40.0 percent from 3-point range in 11 games this season. The Zips rank 24th in the country in field goal percentage (.439) and 28th in 3-point percentage (.354). The Zips rank 19th nationally in scoring offense at 74.9 points per game.

Quest for 300
Head Coach Jodi Kest owns a career record of 295-256 (.535) through 19-plus seasons, needing just eight more wins to total 300 for her career. In 2009-10, she guided the Zips to a school-record 18 wins and was named the MAC Coach of the Year.

Double-Double, Double-Double
Sina King (11p, 10r) and Carly Young (16p, 11r) both recorded double-doubles in the Chicago State win. It was the first time two Akron players tallied double-doubles in the same game since Young and Rachel Tecca did the feat in a 56-53 loss to Kent State last season on March 3, 2011.

Stubbs Having Great Senior Year
Senior Ti'eshia Stubbs is making the most of her senior season. Stubbs is scoring 8.5 points per contest this season, after averaging just 1.7 points per game prior to this year. She scored a career-high 18 points and added seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals in the Jan. 4 loss to Miami. Stubbs also hit a trey at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

Record Watch
Junior guard Taylor Ruper netted 75 3-pointers last season, the second most in a season in program history, and currently stands second all-time with 152 career 3's. The program record is 183 by Michelle Chavanne. Ruper is currently third in career 3-point percentage (.374) and is on pace to break the mark for treys in a season (91, Keyla Snowden, 2007-08).

The Zips are currently on pace to break several team marks. The record for scoring average in a season is 72.8 (1982-83), while UA is also shooting above or near the record for field goal percentage (.443, 1997-98) and free throw percentage (.722, 2007-08).

Up Next
Akron continues its road travels with a Saturday match-up with Eastern Michigan (12-7, 4-2) in Ypsilanti. Game time at the Convocation Center is 2:00 p.m.