TRUJILLO ALTO, PUERTO RICO – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team (8-3) was unable to complete a dramatic comeback as it suffered a 97-91 setback in overtime to Albany (10-2) in its final game of the 2017 Puerto Rico Classic at the Coliseo Ruben Zayas Montanez Thursday.
With 0.4 seconds left on the clock, and the Huskies trailing 85-82,
Mikayla Voigt (Slinger, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) hit a three pointer from the corner at the buzzer to tie the game and send it into an extra frame.
NIU trailed by 13, its largest deficit of the game with 9:07 left in the fourth quarter when the Huskies mounted a charge. NIU outscored the Great Danes, 15-4, in the next six minutes, to cut the Albany lead to two points.
"I think we have a lot of confidence when it comes to their ability to overcome deficits like that," said NIU head coach
Lisa Carlsen. "Obviously, that's what you saw in the fourth quarter."
The Great Danes led by four, 83-79, with 16 seconds left in regulation. Junior
Courtney Woods (Brisbane, Australia/St. Margaret's Anglican School) hit a three-pointer with five seconds left and Voigt quickly fouled Emma List with two seconds remaining in the fourth. List made both free throws to put Albany up by three.
Following an NIU timeout after the second made free throw, the Huskies inbounded the ball on their side of the floor. Voigt then hit her three on the quick inbounds play to tie the game at the horn.
"We try to put our kids in those situations in practice so when it gets to an in-game situation, they've done it a million times and they have confidence it's going to work and they're going to the shot that's drawn up in the huddle," Carlsen said. "Both of those last two situations in regulation were executed to perfection."
Unfortunately for NIU, the Huskies were unable to get anything going in the extra five minutes. NIU fell behind by four in the first minute of overtime and were never able to get the stop and score it needed to tie the game or pull ahead.
Myia Starks (Oswego, Ill./Neuqua Valley) kept the Huskies in the game in the extra period. She pulled NIU to within two points, twice, and scored all six points overtime points for the Huskies. Starks, who entered the second half with two points, finished with a double-double, scoring 19 points and hauling in a career-high 10 rebounds.
Voigt led all scorers with a career-high 25 points, 17 coming in the first half. The Huskie junior went 9-of-19 from the field, including 7-of-11 from three-point territory, also career bests. Woods and
Kelly Smith (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) also finished in double digits, with 19 and 15 points, respectively.
The Huskies outshot Albany, 43.8-37.2 percent for the game, however, lost the battle on the boards, 61-44, allowing 27 offensive rebounds.
Albany raced out to a quick 7-0 lead, however, NIU recovered to tie the game 13-13 with 2:40 left in the first quarter on a pair of Smith free throws. Voigt gave the Huskies their first lead of the game when she hit a three on NIU's next offensive possession. NIU took a 22-18 lead into the second quarter, but Albany came back, outscoring NIU, 29-18, to take a 47-40 advantage into halftime.
NIU went on a 12-2 run to open the third quarter to take a 52-49 lead with 5:04 left in the quarter. However, Albany stormed back with 13-0 to take a 62-52 lead with three minutes left in the quarter.
Five Great Danes finished in double figures, with two posting double-doubles. Jessica Fequiere tallied a team-high 21 points and 15 rebounds, while Tian-Jo Carter scored 18 points and hauled in 10 rebounds.
The Huskies return to the court Saturday, Dec. 30 when NIU opens Mid-American Conference play at Miami. Tip-off is scheduled for 12 p.m. CT.
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