DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team rode a 21-6 third quarter Tuesday morning to a 61-53 victory over the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles at the NIU Convocation Center.
 
"Sometimes you have to find a way to win, even if it's ugly," said head coach Lisa Carlsen following Tuesday's win. "I think there's lessons to be learned from today. We knew Southern Indiana was going to come in and be really aggressive and not beat themselves and they were as advertised. There were times where we were really good defensively, and when things aren't flowing offensively you have to lock in defensively and get stops."
 
The win is NIU's seventh in a row at the Convocation Center. Senior forward A'Jah Davis (DeKalb, Ill./Montverde Academy [Fla.]) and senior guard Chelby Koker (Racine, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran) each led the Huskies with a game-high 15 points. Davis had a game-high nine rebounds, one shy of a double-double, while Koker added a game-high five assists. Emma Carter (Bristol, Vt./Franklin Pierce) chipped in a season-high 10 points.
 
NIU (2-1) led 27-25 at halftime but got out to a fast start in the third. Sparked by back-to-back threes from Carter and another triple from Janae Poisson (Matteson, Ill./Marian Catholic), the Huskies opened the quarter on a 13-2 run over the first 4:41. Carter had eight points in the run as two Davis free throws put NIU ahead 40-27 with 4:22 to play.
 
"A'Jah, Chelby and Jayden [Marable] are phenomenal creators and I wouldn't have gotten those looks without them doing what they do best," said Carter, who scored eight of her 10 points in the third quarter.
 
After a Meredith Raley layup made the score 40-29, Poisson and Koker combined to score the next seven NIU points to give the Huskies their largest lead of the game, 47-29, at the 2:16 mark. For the quarter, NIU outscored the Screaming Eagles 21-6 and held the visitors to 3-for-13 from the field to take a 48-31 lead going into the fourth.
 
"The third quarter was obviously key for us," Carlsen said. "We came out with a lot better defensive intensity and were able to rebound the basketball much better."
 
Southern Indiana rallied back in the final quarter, starting out on a 12-0 run capped by an Ashlynn Brown three-pointer that cut the deficit to five, 48-43, with 6:54 to go. Koker responded for the Huskies with two straight threes to get the lead back up to 11, 54-43, with under six minutes to go. The Screaming Eagles only got as close as five points the rest of the way as NIU hung on for its second straight win, 61-53.
 
The Huskies opened the game on a 7-2 run, capped off by a Jayden Marable (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) layup at the 8:05 mark. Southern Indiana tied the game at nine on a Raley three, but NIU took the lead back with an 8-2 run to close the quarter with a Koker layup that made the score 17-11. NIU led by seven early in the second before a Southern Indiana 7-0 run tied the game at 18 with 5:07 to play until halftime. The two teams traded baskets until the final minute, when baskets from Davis and Laura Nickel (Marshall, Wis./Marshall) gave NIU a 27-23 lead. Vanessa Shafford then beat the buzzer with a floater in the lane to make the score 27-25 going into the locker room.
 
NIU shot 41.7 percent from the field for the game, holding Southern Indiana to 35.7 percent. The Huskies were 14-for-18 from the free throw line and held a 37-29 edge on the glass. Raley led the Screaming Eagles with 15 points as Brown added 10.
 
The Huskies close out their current homestand Thursday, Nov. 17, at 6 p.m. against Western Illinois. For tickets, log on to NIU Huskies.com or call the NIU Athletics Ticket Office at 815-753-PACK (7225).
 
--NIU--