NORMAL, IL – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team was tied with the Illinois State Redbirds 58-58 with under two minutes to play Wednesday night at Redbird Arena, but could not take the lead as the Huskies fell 69-66.
 
Redshirt-Senior Courtney Woods (Brisbane, Australia/St. Margaret's) led all scorers with 26 points, going 7-for-7 at the free throw line. She also had five rebounds and five assists. Woods scored 20 points in the second half with 15 coming in the fourth quarter.
 
"Courtney feels the pressure to score late in games, and she's been in that situation so much in her career," said head coach Lisa Carlsen. "She's at her best in crunch time situations like that."
 
Myia Starks (Plainfield, Ill./Nequa Valley) had 12 points and five rebounds in the game. Mikayla Brandon (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) led NIU with seven rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench.
 
NIU (2-2) trailed by 13 points midway through the third quarter before closing the deficit to four. Woods scored seven points in an 11-2 run over the final 4:41 of the period to get within four, 42-38, heading into the fourth quarter. The Huskies got within three points with 6:00 to play on back-to-back threes by Woods and Chelby Koker (Racine, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran), making the score 52-49. NIU finally drew level with Illinois State with 1:57 to play as a Woods' third three-pointer of the second half and a Starks layup tied the game at 58. The Redbirds then went on a 7-2 run, sparked by a Tete Maggett three, over the next 1:29 to take a 65-62 lead. NIU closed the gap to two points twice in the last 13 seconds but could get no closer.
 
Illinois State (3-1) opened the game on a 9-0 run over the first 2:52, prompting a quick NIU timeout. The Huskies responded by scoring the next six points as back-to-back Gabby Nikitinaite (Orpington, Kent, UK/Coopers School) baskets made the score 9-6 at the 5:54 mark. NIU got within four, 14-10, with 2:45 to go but Starks' jumper was NIU's last basket of the quarter. Lexy Koudelka scored the final seven points of the quarter for the Redbirds to put Illinois State ahead 21-10.
 
NIU ratcheted up the defense in the second quarter, forcing 12 Redbird turnovers. The Huskies got within four with a 9-0 run over 3:08 to make the score 23-19 with 2:34 remaining. Starks had four points in that stretch as Koker added a three and A'Jah Davis (DeKalb, Ill./Montverde Academy [Fla.]) had a layup as well. Woods had the Huskies' last four points of the half to get NIU within five, 28-23, at the break.
 
"There's a lot of things you can take from games like this," said head coach Lisa Carlsen. "We don't want to continue to play from behind like we had to do again tonight. We can't continue to put ourselves in an early hole against Illinois State or anyone else on our schedule. I'm proud that we fought out of it but that's not the way we want to play throughout the season."
 
NIU finished the game shooting 40.3 percent from the field after starting the game 4-for-14 in the first quarter. Illinois State shot 42.4 percent from the field and outrebounded the Huskies 40-39. The Huskies scored just seven points off of 22 Redbirds turnovers, while Illinois State had 23 points off 24 NIU turnovers. Lexi Wallen led Illinois State with 18 points as Maggett had 17 points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
 
The Huskies are back on the road Sunday afternoon for a 1 p.m. game at Purdue. The game will be broadcast on BTN+ and can be heard locally on WLBK 98.9 FM and 1360 AM.

--NIU--