Macomb, Ill. – In a see-saw battle that featured 10 lead changes, eight ties and no double-digit leads, the Northern Illinois University women's basketball team (2-1) came up short at the end, falling to the Western Illinois Leathernecks, 83-79, to suffer its first loss of the season.

NIU took a 77-73 lead with less than minute to play on a three-pointer by Courtney Woods, who scored 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting to lead the Huskies.  Western Illinois then went on an 8-0 run to take an 81-77 lead as WIU's Michelle Farrow recorded a pair of steals in that stretch and hit two free throws with six seconds to play to give the Leathernecks the four-point margin. 

NIU freshman Janae Poisson hit a pair of free throws to cut the margin to two with three seconds remaining, before Western Illinois' Emily Clemens iced the game for WIU with two free throws.  Clemens scored 34 points on 10-of-14 shooting and went 13-of-14 from the free throw line to lead Western Illinois.   

"You've got to give credit to Western," said NIU Head Coach Carlsen. "They played with a little more sense of urgency pretty consistently this afternoon. That's what you're going to come up against when you're on the road especially. We have to be able to bring the same energy at home to somebody else's place in order to give ourselves a chance to win. I just felt like, whether or not it was fatigue from the other night, I thought we were a little lethargic.

"We were obviously careless with the basketball. Those are things we have to learn from and continue to get better at and let this be something to learn from and help us grow going forward."

The Huskies out-rebounded the Leathernecks, 52-31, with senior Ally Lehman (Nineveh, Ind./Indian Creek) pulling down 13 boards and senior Cassidy Glenn (New Lenox, Ill./Providence Catholic) tying her career high with a season-high 11.  Redshirt sophomore Renee Sladek (Merrill, Wis./Merrill) added nine rebounds for the Huskies.

In addition to Woods, Glenn (17), Lehman (15) and Mikayla Voigt (12) reached double figures in scoring for the Huskies. However, NIU committed 25 turnovers in the game, 13 in the first half and 12 in the second, while Western I.

"Today, you can just look at the stat sheet, it tells a story," said NIU head coach Lisa Carlsen. "We didn't take care of the basketball the way we needed to. We knew coming in that Western was going to be really aggressive as far as trying to get their hands on the ball, and we couldn't be soft. At times we were soft, and that led to too many opportunities for them. There were times that our initial defense was ok, but anytime you don't give yourself an opportunity to shoot on the other end, it makes it a rough afternoon."

The Huskies return to the NIU Convocation Center for a pair of games next week, taking on Chicago State on Tuesday, November 22 at 7 p.m. and Illinois State on Friday, November 26 at 6 p.m.

Season as well as single game tickets for NIU women's basketball are on sale through the NIU Athletics Ticket Office at the NIU Convocation Center, online at NIUHuskies.com or by calling 815-753-PACK (7225).

-NIU-