Final Stats

CMU 95, NIU 63 

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - Sophomore Kelly Smith (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) led a trio of Huskies to reach double figures offensively Wednesday night at Central Michigan (9-6, 3-1 MAC), scoring a career-high 21 points. The effort was not enough, however, as the Chippewas made 13 three-point field goals, their second-best performance of the year, to defeat NIU (8-7, 1-3 MAC), 95-63.

It was the second consecutive game Smith reached the 20-point plateau, becoming the first Huskie since Amanda Corral on Jan. 28-31, 2015 to score at least 20 points in back-to-back games. Smith was 8-for-16 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free throw line.

The Huskies and Chippewas fought basket for basket in the opening period as they both made eight field goals with NIU leading in percentage with a clip of .471. Smith closed the frame with six points and quickly entered double-digits with back-to-back baskets in the start of the second stanza to put Northern Illinois University on top, 24-21, with 9:13 left in the half.

Three charge calls on NIU under the basket negated three field goals to back the aggressive Huskies off, putting Central Michigan in control the rest of the quarter. The Chips were paced by a 15-0 run and 5-of-12 shooting behind the three-point line to lead, 45-28.

“We put ourselves in foul trouble when we’re already a little bit thin and it put us behind the eight ball,” said Head Coach Lisa Carlsen. “I don’t feel like we fought through that and we’re definitely going to have to learn how to fight through that, especially on the road.”

Smith closed the first half with 10 points while Lehman ended with seven points and six rebounds. Both teams shot 36 percent from the field with CMU holding a 45-28 lead in the first 20 minutes.

CMU picked up where it left off in the third, registering their best quarterly output of the game with 27 points as it was 4-for-8 from behind the three-point line. Smith would close the third quarter with nine points to give her 19 in the game, just one point shy of matching her career-high.

Lehman and Mikayla Voigt (Slinger, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) combined for 11 of the Huskies 19 points in the final quarter with Lehman pacing NIU with six.

Northern Illinois University would close the second half 12-for-17 from the charity stripe as Smith and Voigt combined for a perfect 7-for-7. Lehman finished 13 points and  eight rebounds while Voigt scored 12.

“We’ve challenged Kelly and Ally to be more aggressive offensively in order for us to be successful and I thought they both did a great job of that in the second half we just need to get more people on the same page more often,” added Carlsen.

NIU will return to action Saturday at Toledo, it’s fourth road in its first five of the Mid-American Conference season. The Huskies and Rockets will tipoff on ESPN3 at 1 p.m. Central.