Box Score Jan. 2, 2016

Final Stats

NIU 65, UA 58 

AKRON, Ohio - Battling back and forth for the entire game, exchanging the lead 12 times at Akron (6-6, 0-1 MAC), the NIU women's basketball team stood firm offensively and defensively in the final five minutes, outscoring the Zips, 11-5, to earn its first Mid-American Conference opener on the road since 2009, 65-58.

Junior Ally Lehman (Nineveh, Ind./Indian Creek) registered her eighth double-double of the season, leading the Huskies with 24 points, 16 rebounds and three assists. Mikayla Voigt (Slinger, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) added 14 points and seven rebounds, while the team made a season-high 18 free throws to shoot 72 percent in the game to Akron’s 7-of-23 (.304) shooting rate. The Huskies held a +11 rebound advantage over the Zips, 47-36.

“This team played with a lot of guts tonight and I think that’s what I’m most proud of tonight. There were times when it wasn’t pretty and times when it wasn’t that efficient for either team but I thought we gutted it out and played hard,” said Head Coach Lisa Carlsen. “We asked some kids to do some things in situations that maybe they hadn’t been in before but that was a gutsy effort by our team tonight.

“Ally makes the team more aggressive offensively. I told her ‘if we want to have success against good teams, you’re going to have to be more aggressive offensively’ and she did a good job of that tonight,” added Carlsen.

So uh tonight we just opened our conference with a win over Akron. Ask us how we feel about it...#newera pic.twitter.com/RtWJENmVmb — Ally Lehman (@TheLehmanator31) January 3, 2016

The Huskies took advantage of four missed free throws immediately as NIU trailed by one at the end of the period, 15-14. With the Huskies owning the last possession of the quarter, Lehman drove the ball to the paint with mere seconds left, kissing a layup off the glass with 1.2 seconds left that caromed into the basket to end the stanza.

Akron’s Hannah Plybon opened the second quarter with an off-balance trey to open the Zips lead to two possessions and eventually to seven points with 4:44 left until halftime on an Anita Brown jumper.

Lehman and Jazmine Harris (West Allis, Wis./Heritage Christian) led NIU in the last 4:30 of the period, started by a Lehman three-pointer and another jumper by the Nineveh, Ind., native. Harris attacked the paint as she drew two fouls, going 3-for-4 from the free foul line, including a pair that tied the game 23-23 with 2:01 left.

NIU would enter the intermission trailing by only three, 30-27, with Lehman getting another chance at the buzzer one a three point attempt that didn’t fall.

Cassidy Glenn (New Lenox, Ill./Providence Catholic) was the Huskies hero in the third quarter as she posted two putbacks late in the period giving NIU the lead back, 46-45, but Brown went up for a last second shot and put the Zips back on top at the end of the quarter, 47-46.

Voigt’s second three-pointer of the game opened the final frame putting NIU back on top, 49-47, but again Akron responded to reclaim the lead. Like delta blues guitarists, the Zips call was Lehman’s response as she put NIU back on top, 55-54, with six points of her own, including two at the free throw line.

With Lehman accounting for eight points in the final period, Voigt would add seven of her own. Kelly Smith’s (Heartland, Wis./Arrowhead) and Glenn’s two points in the final minute and half proved pivotal as Smith knocked down 2-of-4 free throws including one that put NIU back up by two points with 1:26 left.

Glenn nailed a jumper on the baseline with 45 seconds left in the game to put the Huskies back on top by four points, 62-58, their biggest lead of the game. NIU closed the game with a seen-point advantage, tying for the largest of the game.

Brown scored 24 points for Akron, going 10-for-22 from the field while Plybon added 13 points in support for the Zips.

Northern Illinois University will return to the road Wednesday when it takes on Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Tipoff at Millett Hall is set for 6 p.m. Central.

GAME NOTES:
NIU’s four-game win streak is its third such streak since 2009 and its first since Jan. 28-Feb. 7, 2015 … Ally Lehman’s 24 points marked the fourth time a Huskie reached 20 points in a game this season … Lehman is averaging 18 points, 15 rebounds and six assists during NIU’s four-game unbeaten streak … Lisa Carlsen is the first NIU Head Coach to win her inaugural MAC game since Rita Horky in 1983 … The Huskies have won two-straight road games for the first time since Feb. 20-23, 2013.