DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team was unable to overcome a hot shooting third quarter by Eastern Michigan as the Huskies fell, 83-76, on Saturday afternoon at the NIU Convocation Center.
 
"Obviously this one hurts a little bit," said NIU head coach Lisa Carlsen. "I don't think we're going to be near as happy to watch film on this one as we have been the last couple weeks. Credit Eastern Michigan. I think they did a really good gob of getting comfortable offensively.
 
"Anytime you let a team shoot almost 87 percent in a quarter, you're asking for trouble. They really had it going in the third quarter as far as scoring the basketball. We tried to keep up and we shot well and scored the basketball too. When it comes down to it, it's about kids making plays and they just had more kids make plays on offense than we did."
 
The Eagles (9-9, 5-2) shot 86.7 percent from the field and 100 percent from three-point territory in the third quarter. Four Eagles finished in double figures with Sasha Dailey leading the way with 19 points. Eastern Michigan outshot the Huskies (10-8, 2-5) 48.5-43.5 percent on the game.
 
After falling behind 44-37 in the first two minutes of the third quarter, NIU went on a 10-4 run to take a 49-48 lead with 5:40 left in the quarter. The Huskies led 56-55 with 3:28 left in the third when Eastern Michigan went on an 11-3 run to open up a 66-59 advantage with a minute left in the third and went into the fourth quarter with a 68-62 lead.
 
Eastern Michigan opened up a 10-point lead, its largest of the game, with 7:02 left in the game. Junior Courtney Woods (Brisbane, Australia/St. Margaret's Anglican School) stemmed the tide when she hit a three.
 
NIU closed the gap to five points four times in the final five-and-a-half minutes, however, the Huskies was unable to put together a run of their own to pull the game to within a possession.
 
The Huskies had three players finish in double figures with Woods leading the way. The Huskie junior finished with a game-high 31 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Senior Kelly Smith (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) was right behind her with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Paulina Castro (Elgin, Ill./Harvest Christian) scored a career-high 14 points.
 
NIU committed 13 turnovers on the day and Eastern Michigan capitalized, scoring 23 points off Huskie miscues.
 
NIU will return to action on Wednesday, Jan. 24, when the Huskies travel to Ohio to face the Bobcats. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. CT and fans can watch it on ESPN3 and listen live on 1360 AM & 98.9 FM WLBK.
 
-NIU-