Feb. 21, 2009

Final Stats

Box Score in PDF Format

YPSILANTI, Mich. - Turnovers and poor free throw shooting cost the Northern Illinois University women's basketball as they suffered a 53-49 setback on the road to Eastern Michigan Saturday afternoon at EMU's Convocation Center.

The Huskies (13-12, 8-4) shot 53.8 percent from the free throw line, going 7-of-13 from the charity stripe, while the Eagles (7-17, 3-9) went 12-of-17 from the free throw line, shooting 70.6 percent. NIU committed 21 turnovers, and the Eagles capitalized, scoring 22 points off of Huskie miscues.

"The turnovers hurt us," NIU head coach Carol Owens said. "We left some free throws that were out there. We just need to have people step up every game. Every game is important."

Down 32-20 at the break, NIU opened the second half with an 11-2 run to close to within three with 13:23 left in the game. After a pair of Amber Land free throws pushed the EMU lead back to five, Aileen Rossouw (Plano, Texas,/Plano) made a layup and Marke Freeman (Springfield, Ill./Lanphier) stole an EMU pass and dished it to Becky Smith (Janesville, Wis./Parker) who made another layup and was fouled on the play. Smith completed the three-point play to tie the game at 36 with 12:13 left in the game.

On the ensuing NIU possession, she collected an offensive rebound off a missed Kylie York (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) three pointer and made the put back to give the Huskies a 38-36 lead. However, the Huskies were unable to pull away. The two teams traded leads three more times, before the Eagles' Cassie Schrock gave EMU the lead for good when she made a layup to give Eastern Michigan a 49-47 lead with 3:49 left to play.

One of the bright spots for NIU was its bench play. Northern Illinois's bench out-scored Eastern Michigan's reserves 29-18. Rossouw came off the bench to post her first career double double with a team-high 13 points and game-high 10 rebounds. Smith and Freeman turned in solid performances as well, with Freeman finishing with nine points, three rebounds and three steals and Smith ending the game with seven points and five rebounds.

"She [Rossouw] kept us in the game," Owens said. "Becky Smith came in off the bench and played well for us in the second half."

The Huskies return to the court Tuesday, when Northern Illinois welcomes Toledo to the Convocation Center. Tip off time is set for 7 p.m. NIU's game with Toledo is its Pink Zone game. For tickets, contact the NIU ticket office at 815-752-6800 or log on to www.niuhuskies.com. Pink t-shirts will be distributed to early arriving fans and the first 250 fans will receive pink stress balls from game sponsor Los Rancheros. The WBCA Pink Zone initiative is a global, unified effort for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's (WBCA) nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.

Fans can also follow NIU live on 1360 WLBK with play-by-play announcer Bill Baker and color analyst, former Huskie great Lisa Foss and via Gametracker at www.niuhuskies.com.

-NIU-