CHICAGO, IL - Junior forward A'Jah Davis (DeKalb, Ill./Montverde Academy [Fla.]) of the Northern Illinois University women's basketball team scored a career-high 26 points Thursday night but that was not enough for the Huskies to get past the DePaul Blue Demons in a 103-71 loss at Wintrust Arena.

Davis' previous career high was 21 points, set three times in her career including two times this season. She made a career-high 12 shots from the field in 15 attempts and added 13 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. Twenty-two of her 26 points came in the second half.

"That was the A'Jah we know and love, demanding the basketball and being efficient," said head coach Lisa Carlsen. "I thought we did a good job of finding her on the low block. Hopefully that can propel her to some consistency in the next few games because she's a lot to handle at the bottom half of the lane when she's that aggressive."

Janae Poisson (Matteson, Ill./Marian Catholic) scored 14 points for the second straight game with four three-pointers. Chelby Koker (Racine, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran) scored in double figures for the 32nd straight game, putting up 12 points. Koker filled the box score with five rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks.

DePaul's (10-2) full court press paid dividends in the first quarter as the Blue Demons scored eight points off eight Huskie turnovers en route to a 21-9 lead. NIU opened the second quarter on an 8-2 run in the first 3:40. Three-pointers from Koker and Poisson, along with a Davis layup in transition, got the Huskies within six at 23-17 with 6:20 to go until halftime. The Blue Demons responded with a 15-2 run over the next 3:06 to go ahead 38-19 with under two minutes to play until halftime. DePaul led 40-23 at the break, holding the Huskies to 26.7 percent shooting from the field.

NIU (3-5) got 12 points from Davis in the third quarter, but that was not enough to keep up with DePaul's blistering three-point shooting in the period. The Blue Demons made seven of 10 three-point tries in the third to take a commanding 77-51 lead heading into the fourth.

"We knew looking at this two-game stretch that it was going to be a lot for us to handle," Carlsen said. "We're going to look at it as a great learning opportunity for some of our young kids who had to play significant minutes maybe earlier than we thought. We have to believe that will be beneficial going forward."

The Huskies finished the game shooting 39.2 percent from the field and 25.7 percent from long range. DePaul outrebounded NIU 61-43 and scored 23 points off 18 Huskie turnovers. Darrione Rogers led the Blue Demons with 20 points as Aneesah Morrow added a double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds.

NIU returns home to face Colorado State at the Convocation Center on Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 6 p.m. Huskie Flex Plans are now available for the 2021-22 men's and women's basketball seasons.  Purchase vouchers for $6 each and use them throughout the season to attend Huskie men's and women's basketball home games. Simply redeem vouchers for tickets prior to the game. 
 
--NIU--