BOONE, N.C. - The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team tied a season-high with 13 three-pointers on Saturday afternoon in a 75-62 win over the App State Mountaineers at Holmes Convocation Center in the MAC-SBC Challenge.
"We put together a game plan that makes sense, and the players are getting a better sense of what we're trying to do," said head coach
Lisa Carlsen. "We knew against App State that we had to get paint touches and had to share from there and we did a good job of that today."
NIU was 13-for-27 from the three-point line, tying its season-high for threes set against Viterbo on Dec. 28. Junior guard
Alecia Doyle (Carterville, Ill./SEMO) led all scorers for the second consecutive game with 22 points, going 8-for-13 from the field with two three-pointers. She also had six rebounds.
Lexi Carlsen (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) was 4-for-10 from long range for 12 points.
Sidney McCrea (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) also made four three-pointers for 12 points.
App State (13-10) took a 7-5 lead with 6:12 to go in the first quarter on a 7-0 run capped by an Eleyana Tafisi jumper. NIU responded with a 9-2 run over the next 2:58 to go up 14-9, with
Brooke Stonebraker (Versailles, Ohio/Versailles) scoring the last four points. Elena Pericic cut the Huskies' lead to two but threes from Doyle, Carlsen and
Chelby Koker (Racine, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran) put NIU up 23-14 at the end of the first quarter. The Huskies shot 50 percent from the field in the first, making 5-of-11 three-point attempts.
NIU (11-12) extended its lead to 10 early in the second on a Doyle three-point play that made the score 26-16 with 9:19 to go. App State came back with a 12-4 run over 4:17, sparked by five straight points from J'Mani Ingram, to get within two points 30-28 with 4:43 to go in the first half. The Huskies extended the lead up to 11, their largest in the half, with a 9-0 run capped by back-to-back threes from Carlsen and Koker to take a 39-28 lead.
The Mountaineers closed the gap to seven in the third quarter. Four straight points from Zada Porter made the score 45-38 with 5:27 to play in the period. The Huskies got the lead up to 12 with 4:28 remaining in the third on a Carlsen three and a
Brooke Blumenfeld (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) layup put the score at 50-38. NIU took its largest lead of the game at the 8:47 mark of the fourth when Doyle's second three of the day put the Huskies up 62-48.
App State made one last run to get back in the game. Sparked by threes from Porter and Elena Pericic, the Mountaineers went on a 12-2 run over 2:59 to make the score 64-60 with 5:33 to play. That was as close as App State would get. NIU put the game away at the free throw line, 8-for-10 in the final 5:15 to close the game on an 11-2 run to win 75-63.
NIU shot 44.8 percent from the field and was 10-for-14 from the free throw line, The Huskies held the Sun Belt leaders in field goal percentage and three-point percentage to 38.1 percent from the field and 7-for-22 from long range. NIU also outrebounded App State 41-35. Koker led NIU with seven rebounds, adding 10 points and a game-high eight assists. Stonebraker added six rebounds.
"We had some good opportunities in transition today, and those don't come if you don't do well on the glass," Carlsen said. "We talk a lot about all five people doing their job on the defensive glass and secure the rebound and that gave us opportunities in conversion. Hopefully we continue to play with confidence and build on this to put ourselves in a position to accomplish the goals we set for ourselves."
The Huskies continue their three-game road swing on Saturday, Feb. 15 at Western Michigan. Tip-off at University Arena is at 11 a.m. CT.
—NIU—
