Feb. 9, 2008

Final Stats

Box Score in PDF Format

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio-The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team suffered an 85-65 setback to the defending Mid-American Conference Champion Bowling Green Falcons Saturday afternoon at Bowling Green.

The Huskies (8-14, 4-5) jumped out to an 8-3 lead to open the game, but Bowling Green (17-6, 6-3) responded with an 8-2 run to take an 11-10 lead. The Falcons began pulling away towards the end of the first half. Leading 31-24 with 4: 25 left in the Half, BGSU outscored the Huskies 12-7 to take a 43-31 lead into the break. Tara Breske led the way for the Falcons with 16 first half points.

Bowling Green shot 50 percent from the field, scoring the bulk of its points inside. The Falcons had 24 points in the paint. The Huskies shot 39 percent from the floor in the first half, but helped themselves at the free throw line, going 7-8 from the line and shooting 87 percent.

The second half was all Bowling Green. The Falcons opened the second half with a 10-0 run in the first three minutes. The Huskies were down 53-21 before they hit their first field goal of the half, a Kylie York (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) three pointer, with 15:46 left to play. BGSU led by as many as 27 points in the second half.

"I felt they were tougher than us tonight," NIU head coach Carol Owens said. "We didn't do a good job defensively and I thought they exploited our weaknesses. I thought we had some let ups, but I have to give the credit to Bowling Green."

Breske led all scorers with a career-high 23 points. She was one of four Falcons to finish in double figures. Shari' Welton (Calumet City, Ill./Thornwood) led the way for the Huskies with a career-high 17 points. After scoring 11 points in the first half, Whitney Lowe (Bushnell, Ill./Prairie City) finished with 15 points. York rounded out the trio of Huskies in double figures with 10.

NIU returns home Wednesday Feb. 13, 2008 when the Huskies play host to Kent State in the Convocation Center. Tip off is 7 p.m.