Final Stats

Toledo 89, NIU 83 (OT) 

DeKALB - The NIU women’s basketball team rallied down from 12 points in the fourth quarter to force overtime at the NIU Convocation Center against Toledo (16-11, 11-5 MAC) Saturday, outscoring the Rockets, 24-14, in the final period. However, missed shots and free throws cost the Huskies (11-16, 4-12 MAC) in the extra period, 89-83. The two teams traded 10 leads in the game and tied the game 10 times.

“I was proud of the way the kids fought back, especially when they got after it on the defensive end of things. When you’re trying to come from behind that’s where your focus needs to be and I thought we got a little bit tougher as the game went on and that was the biggest key for us in getting back to even with Toledo,” said Head Coach Lisa Carlsen.

Five Huskies scored 10-or-more points, led by Ally Lehman (Nineveh, Ind./Indian Creek) who registered her 14th double-double of the season with 18 points and 16 rebounds. She also accrued eight assists. Rockets Brenae Harris and Janice Monakana scored 21 and 20 points, respectively.

Cassidy Glenn (New Lenox, Ill./Providence Catholic) scored 17 points while Courtney Woods (Brisbane, Australia/St. Margaret’s Anglican) added 12 points as both players finished with nine rebounds. Kelly Smith (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) closed the game with 16 points. NIU allowed a season-low nine turnovers.

The Huskies and the Rockets played up and down in the opening half with each team taking over 30 shots and shooting 41 percent from the field.

As a result, NIU and Toledo traded seven ties and four lead changes in the first 20 minutes of the game, including a second-chance jumper by Woods at the top of the key at the buzzer to tie the game at halftime, 36-36.

Each team scored in spurts with the Rockets attacking first in the opening stanza. With each NIU response, Toledo responded as well as UT closed the opening frame with a 19-17 lead.

Smith, who entered the second quarter with two points, scored 10 in the second stanza as she went 4-for-6 from the field to finish the half with 12 points. NIU took its first lead of the game on a Jazmine Harris (West Allis, Wis./Heritage Christian) layup off the glass with 8:03 left in the second quarter, 25-24.

Toledo responded with a 5-0 run before the Huskies countered with an 11-5 run of their own, paced by Smith’s six points, but highlighted by NIU’s first trey by Glenn with 56 seconds left and Woods buzzer-beating shot.

UT opened the third quarter shooting 8-of-9, taking a 54-46 lead at the media timeout with 4:21 left. Toledo would lead by as much as 11 in the period.

Jazmine Harris rallied the Huskies for eight points in the period, spinning and weaving through Toledo’s defenders in the paint as she closed the game with 10 points and six rebounds from the bench.

After trailing by 62-52 entering the fourth, the Rockets led by 12 at the start of the fourth, but the Huskies were unfazed by the deficit and went on to outscore Toledo in the fourth, 24-14.

The Huskies started the fourth on an 18-6 run as Glenn, Lehman and Woods started things off for the Huskies. Back-to-back treys by Mikayla Voigt (Slinger, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) ignited the Huskies as she gave NIU the lead back, 70-69, with 3:59 remaining in regulation.

“Mikayla stepped on a couple of possessions where we really needed a bucket and I think that sparked us with a little more intensity on the defensive end, getting stops, which allowed us to push the ball in transition and open up some lanes up and allowed us to get to the basket,” Carlsen added.

After Toledo reclaimed the lead a minute later, the Huskies registered two straight stops and took a three-point lead with 1:35 to go, 74-71. The Rockets took their final lead of regulation with 19.7 left as Brenae Harris hit a jumper with 19.7 left, 76-74.

Lehman responded on the next possession taking the ball on an inbounds pass where she was quickly collapsed upon and doubled by Toledo. The junior squeezed through the defenders with a lunge step and a bound towards the basket from the free throw line, draining a jump shot with 8.6 seconds to tie the game.

The Huskies burned two fouls to erase 3.5 seconds off the clock, leaving Brenae Harris with the final chance to win it with 5.1 left. Senior captain Lacia Gorman (Fort Wayne, Ind./Wisconsin) pressed Brenae Harris defensively, forcing the Rocket to run around the arc before cutting to the basket with less than a second left, negating any chance at a shot and forcing overtime.

In overtime, Northern Illinois was the aggressor to start things off as it led by three points after a Glenn layup and a follow-up free throw. Missed free throws by Toledo and NIU in the midway point of overtime kept things at a stalemate until Toledo built a four-point lead with 48 seconds left.

Lehman followed up with two free throws to put NIU within two points and 38 seconds on the clock, 85-83, but the Huskies would not inch any closer as Toledo made four-straight free throws to seal the game.

NIU outscored Toledo on second chance opportunities, 20-5, as it outrebounded the Rockets, 47-38. The Huskies loss in overtime was their second in as many chances this season, falling to Eastern Michigan on Jan. 9, 87-80.

NIU will return to action Wednesday, March 2 as it heads to Muncie, Ind., to take on Ball State. Tipoff between the Huskies and Cardinals on ESPN3 is set for 6 p.m. Central.