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Ebony Ellis scored 14 points and pulled down 16 rebounds in NIU's 78-66 loss to Toledo, Saturday.

Women's Basketball

Huskies Fall Short of Road Sweep at Toledo

Jan. 10, 2009

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TOLEDO, Ohio - Sophomore forward Ebony Ellis scored 14 points to pace a group of four Northern Illinois players that scored in double-figures, but the Huskies were unable to complete the road sweep to open conference play, falling 78-66 at Toledo, Saturday.

Coming off a 75-70 win over Central Michigan, Northern Illinois was trying to go 2-0 in conference play for the first time since 2005.

With the Huskies trailing by 66-54, Kylie York (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) hit a three-pointer and Bianca Brown (Detroit, Mich./Detroit Renaissance) followed with a lay-up to cut Toledo's lead to seven with 3:30 remaining. But the Rockets answered with an 8-0 run keyed by 6-for-6 free throw shooting to close out the game.

Northern Illinois fell to 6-9, 1-1 in Mid-American Conference play, while the Rockets improved to 8-7, with a 2-0 conference mark. Northern Illinois led by as much as nine in the first half, thanks to nine points from sophomore Marke Freeman (Springfield, Ill./Lanphier), and eight from both Ellis (Joliet, Ill./Joliet Township) and York. The Huskies led for nearly 18 minutes during the first half, but entered the locker room up just one, 36-35.

"We didn't execute as well as we would've liked on offense, and they cut the lead to one point at half," Head Coach Carol Owens said.

The teams opened the second half on even ground until Naama Shafir scored eight points to ignite a 13-5 run that pushed Toledo ahead, 56-47. The run came with Shari' Welton (Calumet City, Ill./Thornwood), one of the Huskies' key defenders, on the bench with four fouls.

"The foul trouble hurt us down the stretch," Owens said. "They shot the ball very well in the second half, and got a lot of transition points."

Elllis scored her 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and added a game-high 16 rebounds. York and Freeman each finished with 11, as did Mauvolyene Adams (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook), despite going scoreless in the first half. Jessie Wilcox (Oshkosh, Wis./West) tallied a game-high seven assists to go with seven points, one block and one steal.

Shafir finished as the game's leading scorer with 17, including 15 second-half points. Lisa Johnson led the Rockets with 10 rebounds, and added nine points.

The Huskies return to DeKalb for a three-game home stand, starting Jan. 14 at 7 p.m. against Western Michigan.

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