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Whitney Lowe scored a career- and game-high 26 points

Women's Basketball

NIU Women's Basketball Team Loses to Akron

Feb. 3, 2008

Final Stats

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AKRON, Ohio-The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team falls to Akron, 78-71, Sunday afternoon at Rhodes Arena. AKRON, Ohio-The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team falls to Akron, 78-71, Sunday afternoon at Rhodes Arena.

"Our energy level wasn't where it needed to be, especially on the defensive end," NIU head coach Carol Owens said. "We've been talking a lot about important our defense was going to be, especially on the road, because that's something we can control."

The Huskies (8-13, 4-4) got off to a fast start, leading by seven midway through the first half. However, NIU went into a scoring drought the final two minutes of the half and the Zips took advantage. Akron went on a 7-0 run in the final minute of the first half to take a 30-29 lead into the break.

Akron (7-15, 2-6) extended its lead to five, 38-33, in the opening minutes of the second half. The Huskies charged back behind the hot shooting of Whitney Lowe (Bushnell, Ill./Prairie City). She hit NIU's first three field goals of the final frame, keying a 12-10 Huskie run to give NIU a 41-40 lead with 15:02 left to play. Lowe accounted for 12 of the Huskies 23 points through the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Akron's Kara Murphy matched Lowe's effort, scoring 10 points during a seven minute stretch in the second half. She was complemented by teammate Ashley Veal, who also scored 10 points in the second half, to give Akron 64-63 lead with 3:49 left to play.

The Huskies went into a scoring slump, failing to connect on a field goal for almost four minutes down the stretch. Once again the Zips made the most of it. Akron's Amanda Sedlack began a 8-0 run by the Zips, hitting a three-pointer with 1:46 left to play. Lowe connected on a three with 37 seconds left to play to pull the Huskies to within four, 73-69. That would be as close as the Huskies would get.

Lowe finished with a career- and game-high 26 points. She was followed by Kylie York (Fishes, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) with nine points.

The Huskies shot 37.5 percent from the field, while Akron shot 47.4 percent. The difference in the game came at the free throw line. The Huskies went 15-23 for 65 percent, while the Zips shot 94.4 percent, going 17-18 from the charity stripe.

NIU will be back on the court Saturday Feb. 9, 2008 when the Huskies travel to Bowling Green to take on the Falcons. Tip off is set for 1 p.m. CST.

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