Women's Basketball | November 10

DEKALB, Ill. – Fresh off an 89-80 win over Yale in the season opener Thursday night, the Northern Illinois University women's basketball team travels to Iowa State Sunday for a second-round Preseason WNIT game at 2 p.m.
 
The Huskies shot a school-record 96.7 percent at the free throw line Thursday night against the Bulldogs, making 29 of 30 foul shots. NIU outscored Yale 37-18 over the final 13:22 of the ballgame to come away with the win. Courtney Woods (Brisbane, Australia/St. Margaret's) led all scorers with 38 points, making six three-pointers and a career-high 14 free throws. She also added 12 rebounds for a double-double. Mikayla Voigt (Slinger, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) and Myia Starks (Oswego, Ill./Nequa Valley) also scored in double-figures, scoring 17 and 13 points respectively.
 
With her 38 points Thursday, Woods passed Gena Stubbs for ninth place on the NIU career scoring chart with 1,558 career points. She is now 442 points away from becoming the third Huskie all-time to reach 2,000 career points. Her six three-pointers also put Woods at 250 for her career, making her the second NIU player to reach that mark.
 
Iowa State opened its season Friday with a 95-35 win over Niagara at Hilton Coliseum. The Cyclones led 49-12 at halftime, shooting 57.6% from the field. Ashley Joens led Iowa State with 16 points and made four three-pointers. Bridget Carleton and Ines Nezerwa each scored 14 points, with Carleton adding a game-high 15 rebounds. Carleton was named to the Cheryl Miller Award watch list in the preseason, joining Courtney Woods. She was also named preseason All-Big 12. Iowa State returned 73.8 percent of its scoring, 70.6 percent of its rebounding, and almost 65 percent of its assists from a year ago when it went 14-17.

The Cyclones have won both meetings in the series against NIU at Hilton Coliseum. Iowa State earned a 97-89 win over the Huskies on Dec. 11, 2016. NIU trailed by 12 points heading into the third quarter and was able to cut the deficit to three, 90-87, in the last 40 seconds. Woods had 17 points in the game with Voigt contributing 16. Janae Poisson (Matteson, Ill./Marian Catholic) led the NIU bench with 12 points.

--NIU--