DeKalb, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team evened its record at 5-5 on the season and improved to 3-0 in the NIU Convocation Center with a 65-55 win over the Eastern Illinois University Panthers Monday.
NIU maintained its three-point halftime lead through the third quarter, extending the lead to 11 points with less than five minutes remaining in the period before Eastern Illinois came back to close the gap back to three – 44-41 - heading into the fourth.
Jayden Marable (Bolingbrook, Illinois/Bolingbrook) and
Jayde Van Hyfte (Annawan, Ill. / Arizona State) scored early in the fourth as NIU extended the lead to 51-44.
Tara Stauffacher (Columbus, Wis. / Wisconsin) extended the Huskies lead to 60-53 with under four minutes left after two three-pointers from EIU had closed the gap to four. Sydney McCrea (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) quickly followed with a three of her own as the Huskies lead bloomed to double digits.
The Huskies were led by strong performances from McCrea,
Brooke Stonebraker, (Versailles, Ohio/ Versailles), Marable and
Kortney Drake (Wilton, Iowa/ Kirkwood CC) who all scored in double digits.
"This team is not playing as individuals and that is how the team is constructed," said NIU head coach
Lisa Carlsen. "That's how we're going to win ballgames on any given night. Any five on the floor at any given time understand what we need to get accomplished. That's what I love about this team is they don't they don't care who gets the credit."
The Huskies (5-5) missed their first five threes in the first quarter before going four of seven in the second quarter. The Huskies finished the game 9-of-20 from the three-point line.
"I think we got better looks as the game went on and that's for a lot of reasons," Carlsen said. "I thought Eastern did a really nice job in the first half of taking away opportunities from outside the arc. Once we got better dribble penetration and forced the defense to help us, we got a lot better looks."
The Huskies shot 26-of-59 from the field (44.1%) and had 45 rebounds, leading the Panthers (3-9) in both categories who shot 20-for-59 (33.9%) and grabbing 33 rebounds.
NIU opened the game with an 8-0 run behind six from Stonebraker before a Panther three got the visitors on the board.
Stonebraker added eight in the first quarter and Marable's last second shot put the Huskies up 14-10 at the end of one.
In the second quarter the Panthers went on an 11-5 run to take a 21-19 lead on the Huskies with 4:22 left in the first half.
The Panthers' lead extended to four before three-pointers from Drake, McCrea and
Grace Hunter (Monroeville, Ind. / Bellmont) pushed the Huskies ahead 28-23.
A layup from the Panthers Charita Lewis at the buzzer cut the Huskies lead to 28-25 at break.
Marable scored just two points in the first half before adding 10 on the other side of the break.
"I did not have a great first half so I knew I had to come out and be more aggressive in the second half," Marable said. "Having that mindset of the first half doesn't matter and coming out with more intensity in the second half helped me."
Over the final three minutes the Huskies lead stayed in the double digits as they closed out the 65-55 win.
The Huskies return to the floor on December 30 at 1 p.m. against Concordia University Chicago.
-- NIU --
