Huskies Fall To First-Place Miami On Education Day
The Northern Illinois University women’s basketball team was held to a season-low 43 points on Wednesday in a 71-43 loss to the Miami RedHawks at the NIU Convocation Center for Education Day.
“Miami is a really good basketball team and they’re 9-0 for a reason,” said head coach Jacey Brooks. “They’re very talented top to bottom. We handled their aggressiveness and physicality for a majority of the first half. It was a five-point game and Miami extended the lead to 14 by halftime. It’s hard to get out of a hole against a really good team.”
Nadechka Laccen (San Juan, Puerto Rico/St. Bonaventure) led the Huskies with 11 points, making 5-of-6 free throw attempts. Emilie Sorensen (Waukee, Iowa/Waukee) added seven points.
NIU (4-16, 2-7 MAC) and Miami traded baskets to start the game, with a Sorensen three and a Laccen layup giving the Huskies a 5-4 lead with 5:07 to go in the first. An Amber Tretter basket sparked an 11-1 RedHawks run over the next 4:46 which put Miami ahead 15-6. Sorensen cut the lead to seven 15-8, with a layup in the final seconds of the quarter.
That basket started an 8-2 NIU run that went into the second quarter. Back-to-back jumpers from Sorensen and Nevaeh Wingate (Liverpool, N.Y./St. John’s) got the Huskies within three at 17-14 with 8:28 to go until halftime. NIU was as close as five points twice in the second quarter, but Miami closed the half on an 11-2 run with three three-pointers from Amber Scalia, Tamar Singer and Clara Gonzalez to take a 36-22 halftime lead.
Miami’s (17-4, 9-0 MAC) effort on the defensive end held NIU to 4-for-18 from the field in the second half. The RedHawks held the Huskies without a field for a stretch of 10:58 in the second half to go up by as much as 33, 69-36, with 3:05 to play. NIU closed the game scoring seven of the last nine points, four of which came from redshirt-freshman Makenzie Brass (Minooka, Ill./Minooka), to make the final score 71-43.
The RedHawks shot 51.1 percent from the field and were 8-for-20 from the three-point arc. Tretter led all players with 17 points and six rebounds.
NIU hosts Central Michigan on Saturday, Jan. 31 at the NIU Convocation Center. Tip-off is at 2 p.m. Tickets are on sale at NIUHuskies.com/tickets and by calling the NIU Athletics Ticket Office at 815-753-PACK (7225).