SAN ANTONIO – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team picked up their third-straight win with a 69-55 victory over UT-San Antonio Friday night at the UTSA Convocation Center.
"I thought we came out of the locker room and played really well in the first quarter," NIU women's basketball Head Coach
Lisa Carlsen said. "We established a nice lead and were able to maintain that throughout the game."
NIU came out of the gates firing on all cylinders going on a 17-0 run in the first quarter after the Roadrunners scored the first basket of the game. May scored seven of the team's 19 first quarter points as the Huskies finished the quarter leading 19-9.
All five Huskie starters scored in double figures, led by senior forward
Kelly Smith. Smith finished with a game-high 15 points. The starting unit of Smith, Myia Starks,
Mikayla Voigt,
Courtney Woods and
Ally May combined to score 64 of the 69 NIU points as Woods had 14, Voigt had 13 and Starks and May each scoring 11.
"I think we did a really nice job of sharing the basketball today," Carlsen said. "We didn't shoot it particularly well but I think everyone did their job and that was important. Kelly, Courtney and Mikayla have played a lot of games, have a good understanding of each other and that was on display today."
A different Huskie led the way offensively in each quarter. After May's seven in the first, Smith scored eight in the second while Voigt added six on two three-pointers in the quarter. Woods scored seven and Starks added sixth in the third.
UTSA's 55 points is a season low given up by NIU this season and the second-straight game the Huskies held a team under 60 points. The Roadrunners only shot 37-percent from the field and 20-percent from three-point range. UTSA turned the ball over 21 times, which the Huskies converted into 22 points.
"We did a really good job of not having any big break downs in what we were doing defensively," Carlsen said. "We were changing things up so sometimes we had break downs within each defense but never with what defense we were running."
NIU outscored UTSA in every quarter of the game except for the fourth, ending the first with a 19-9 lead, outscoring the Roadrunners 21-19 in the second and entering the fourth quarter with a 62-45 lead.
The Huskies will have a quick turnaround before their next game tomorrow at noon as they take on Lamar to close out their play at the UTSA Thanksgiving Classic.
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