DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team held the Mid-American Conference's highest scoring offense to just 69 points, but shot just 27.4 percent from the field in a 69-53 loss to the Ohio Bobcats Wednesday night at the NIU Convocation Center.
 
"Unfortunately in the game of basketball, some nights the ball doesn't go in the basket," said head coach Lisa Carlsen. "We didn't get off to a good start offensively. When you're playing a team the caliber of Ohio and you start off in that kind of a hole, the margin of error just becomes so small. It's tough to fight back from. I think there were things that we did on the defensive end that were really good at times, but we have to shoot the ball more consistently to have a chance to beat a team as good as Ohio."
 
Mikayla Voigt (Slinger, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) led the Huskies with 23 points for her eighth game this season of at least 20 points. Gabby Nikitinaite (Orpington, Kent, UK/Coopers School) added 10 points, six rebounds, and two blocks. Ally May led NIU with 14 rebounds, her fifth double-digit rebound effort in the last seven games.
 
"We put in a lot of time to be able to expect ourselves to knock down those shots and that's exactly what we're going to do," Voigt said. "We're going to get back in the gym so that we can have the expectation that we're going to take the same exact shots on Saturday and they're going to go in."
 
Ohio (16-1, 5-1 MAC) got off to a fast start, taking an 8-3 lead in the first 4:04 on a pair of layups from both Gabby Burris and Cierra Hooks. Voigt got the Huskies within two at the 4:10 mark with a three, making the score 8-6. The Bobcats held NIU to just one field goal for the remainder of the quarter, taking a 20-8 lead after the first.
 
NIU (11-7, 3-3 MAC) got within nine at the 2:38 mark of the second quarter when a Riley Blackwell (Plainfield, Ind./Plainfield) layup capped a 9-3 run to put the score at 30-23. The Huskies outscored Ohio 13-12 in the second, but trailed 32-21 at halftime. After shooting 21.6 percent from the field in the first half, the Huskies shot 33.3 percent in both the third and fourth quarters but the Bobcats shot 48 percent in the second half to run away with a 69-53 win.
 
"We felt like we were getting good shots," Carlsen said. "If we continued to get those looks, we felt like good things could happen. We were just never able to get in much of a flow offensively and put together possession after possession and put the ball in the basket."
 
NIU shot 27.4 percent from the field Wednesday night, it's lowest percentage since shooting 28.6 percent against Ball State on Feb. 17, 2018. Ohio shot 40.9 percent from the field and outrebounded the Huskies 51-45. Erica Johnson led Ohio with 26 points, 16 rebounds, and five assists.
 
The Huskies go on the road Saturday to face the Buffalo Bulls. Tipoff is at 1 p.m.
 
--NIU--