MOUNT PLEASANT, MI – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team led the Central Michigan Chippewas by as many as 19 points Saturday, but a second-half rally led the Chippewas to a 74-68 win at McGuirk Arena in the final regular season game for both teams.
"We came out of the locker room pregame really ready to go, which is great," said head coach
Lisa Carlsen. "We did a lot of good things in the first half and took Central's best shot in the third and I think in the fourth quarter we ran out of gas."
Chelby Koker (Racine, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran) scored 24 of her game-high 28 points in the second half. She was 8-for 16 from the field and 9-for-13 from the free throw line while adding four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Janae Poisson (Matteson, Ill./Marian Catholic) made four three-pointers off the bench for 12 points.
Mikayla Brandon (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) had nine points and seven rebounds.
NIU (12-11, 10-8 MAC) made its first five shots from the field Saturday, taking a 12-3 lead at the 6:56 mark when an
Errin Hodges (Pontiac, Ill./Evansville Central [Ind.]) jumper capped a 12-1 run for the Huskies. Central Michigan got within three on back-to-back threes from Maddy Watters and Molly Davis to make the score 12-9 with 5:38 left in the first.
The Huskies answered back with a 13-2 run over the next 4:05. Poisson made three straight three-pointers during that stretch with a
Jayden Marable (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) jumper putting NIU ahead 25-11 with 0:30 left in the quarter. The Chippewas scored the final basket of the quarter to make the score 25-13. NIU shot 58.8 percent from the field in the first, making 5-of-10 three-point attempts.
NIU opened the second quarter on a 9-2 run, taking its largest lead of the game with 4:11 to go when a pair of Koker free throws put the Huskies ahead 34-15. The Chippewas started the quarter making just one shot out of its first five, but closed the period making four straight three-pointers in a 12-3 run to get within 10 37-27 at halftime.
Central Michigan (15-8, 13-6 MAC) cut the halftime deficit in half by the 6:36 mark of the third quarter when a Davis jumper capped a 7-1 run that made the score 43-38. The Huskies went back ahead by nine on four straight points from Koker to go up 47-38 with 6:05 to go. Central Michigan held NIU without a field goal for the next 2:55, closing the gap to four points on a Watters layup at the 3:10 mark to make the score 51-47. Koker doubled the NIU advantage with a free throw and her third three of the quarter to put the Huskies ahead 55-47 with 2:54 to go.
Micaela Kelly cut the deficit to six with a basket with 2:16 left in the third, making the score 55-49. Her layup started a 12-2 Chippewas run that extended into the fourth quarter, where a Davis jumper with 7:12 left gave Central Michigan a 59-57 lead. The two teams traded baskets until the 5:19 mark when Kelly went on a 6-0 run by herself to put the Chippewas ahead 70-62 with 2:39 left to play. NIU would only get as close as four points in the final seconds.
Central Michigan shot 60.7 percent from the field in the second half to finish the game at 49.1 percent. NIU shot 41.1 percent in the game and was 10-for-28 from the three-point line. The Huskies held a narrow 31-30 rebounding edge. Kelly led the Chippewas with 25 points, six assists and four steals.
"I think for everybody going into this last game, because the tournament teams going to Cleveland was pretty much settled, everybody's trying to build momentum," Carlsen said. "We have to be able to put our best version of ourselves on the floor in order to have success."
NIU will enter next week's Mid-American Conference Tournament at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland as the number seven seed. The Huskies will take on Central Michigan on Wednesday, March 10 in the third quarterfinal that day at approximately 3 p.m. CST.
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