SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team fell to Lamar 90-80 in their second game of the UTSA Thanksgiving Classic at the UTSA Convocation Center Saturday.
 
"We're better than what we showed today," said NIU Head Coach Lisa Carlsen. "We had to handle a little bit of adversity with foul trouble we were in and I don't think we adjusted to it well."
 
The Huskies got a combined 41 points from juniors Mikayla Voigt and Courtney Woods as both players had strong second halves. NIU had to deal with foul trouble all game as Kelly Smith and Myia Starks both fouled out of the contest in the fourth quarter as the Huskies totaled 30 fouls in the game.
 
Woods scored 17 of her 22 in the second half with an 11-point third quarter but the Huskies, as a team, were outscored 35-23 in the third. Voigt scored 10 of her 19 in the fourth quarter as NIU tried to rally back from a 69-54 deficit. The Huskies whittled the margin to within seven points on multiple occasions, but fell just short.
 
The Huskies shot 40 percent from the field and 29 percent from three-point range as Lamar allowed NIU to go on many long scoring runs. The Cardinals also outrebounded NIU 51 to 39, grabbing 16 offensive rebounds to the Huskies' five and scoring 16 second chance points.
 
"I felt like there were times that we got the right people open shots and we just needed to knock them down," Carlsen said. "Whenever Courtney's open we want her taking shots and Mikayla will probably tell you that she should have shot the ball better. We're better offensively than we showed today."
 
Redshirt junior guard Nicole Orr scored a career-high seven points off the bench for NIU, all coming in the second quarter. Orr's performance, combined with four points from Ally May and NIU going 7-for-9 from the free throw line, helped the Huskies to trail by three points heading into halftime.
 
After halftime Lamar outscored NIU 35-23 in the third quarter, led by the Cardinals' Moe Kinard, whp scored 10 of her 30 points in the third. Lamar scored 18 of their 35 in the paint, with eight second chance points as they grabbed 13 rebounds, six offensive boards, to NIU's four total rebounds.
 
"We just didn't play well enough to win," Carlsen said. "We needed to be tougher when we needed to get stops. There were times when we were still in it in the second half and we just traded baskets, to me that's a toughness thing."
 
The Huskies will head back home to open a two-game homestand against Bradley on Wed., Nov. 29. Tip off is set for 6 p.m. CT.