March 4, 2007

Box Score

CLEVELAND - The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team opened the 2007 Kraft MAC Women's Basketball Tournament with a 69-56 victory of Akron Sunday at Quicken Loans Arena.

"It was good to get a win here at Quicken Loans Arena," NIU head coach Carol Owens said. "Coming here and getting this win set the tempo for us in terms of how we need to play. We were challenged at moments but we fought back."

The Huskies (18-11), the No. 3 seed out of the West, were led by senior Kristin Wiener. The forward out of Apple Valley, Minn. scored a team-high 18 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Stephanie Raymond followed with 12 points and eight assists.

The game was won the boards. The Huskies out-rebounded the East's No. 6 seed Akron (10-19), 44-33. Mary Basic had a strong day on the glass, grabbing a team-high 10 rebounds. Becky Smith tallied a career-high in points and rebounds, with nine points and nine boards. Kylie York had another strong day from beyond the arc. The freshman out of Fishers, Ind. hit three three-pointers for nine points.

After falling behind 4-2 in the opening minutes of the first half, the Huskies went on a 13-2 run to take a 15-6 lead with 13:13 left to play in the half. The Huskies would never trail. The Huskies led by as many as 21 points late in the first half. The closest the Zips would get would be eight, 62-54, with 2:48 left to play.

Akron's Sarah Tokodi led all scorers with 19 points. The Huskies held the Zips to 34 percent shooting for the game, 13 percent from three-point territory. The Huskies shot 45 percent from the field, 31 from three-point land.

The Huskies will be back in action Tuesday when they face off against the No. 2 seed out of the East Kent State. Tip off is set for 2 p.m. CST. The Huskies dropped the earlier meeting, 78-71, when the two met earlier this year.