The Northern Illinois University women’s basketball team was within one point, 56-55, of the Kent State Golden Flashes in the final three minutes of its Mid-American Conference Women’s Basketball Championship quarterfinal Wednesday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse but could not claw back to take the lead in a 63-60 loss.

“I told our players after the game that I was super proud of the effort,” said head coach Lisa Carlsen. “We played Kent State early in January and it was pretty lopsided. Tonight really showed the growth we’ve made as a team. We left all on the floor and got beat by a really good Kent State team. Obviously not the result we wanted, but I’m definitely proud of the effort.”

Senior guard Kortney Drake (Wilton, Iowa/Kirkwood CC) made a career-high five three-pointers and scored a career-high 17 points. Sidney McCrea (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) added 11 points, six rebounds and three assists. Laura Nickel (Marshall, Wis./Marshall) had 10 points and a season-high five assists off the bench.

NIU (15-16) opened the game on a 7-0 run sparked by a Drake three just over a minute in. Her second three of the night put the Huskies up 10-5 at the 5:45 mark. Kent State responded to even the contest at 12 with just over two minutes to play in the first quarter. The Golden Flashes took their first lead, 15-14, on a Katie Shumate three with 0:45 seconds left in the first until Stonebraker scored the final bucket of the opening 10 minutes to give the Huskies a 16-15 edge.

Neither team led by more than two in the second quarter until back-to-back buckets from Nickel gave the Huskies a 27-24 lead with 1:51 to play before the intermission. Kent State’s Janae Tyler scored the final four points of the half as the Golden Flashes took a 28-27 lead into the break.

Kent State (19-10) used a 7-0 run early in the third to go up 37-31 with 6:37 left in the quarter. The Huskies closed the gap to two at the 2:49 mark when a McCrea triple and a Brooke Blumenfeld (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) made the score 41-39. Bridget Dunn responded with her third triple of the game to put the Golden Flashes back up by five, 44-39. The Huskies came back and got within one. Two Nickel free throws at the end of the third made the score 47-43, and a Drake three at the start of the fourth put the total at 47-46 with 9:48 left in the game.

“My teammates were being aggressive from the jump and getting in the paint, and that opened up for kick-out threes,” said Drake about her three-point shooting Wednesday night. “A big credit to that and shooting with confidence helps too.”

The Golden Flashes scored the next five points to take a 52-46 lead with 8:02 to go as baskets by Tyler and Jenna Batsch put Kent State up six. NIU closed the gap to one with 2:29 to go, with two layups from Jayden Marable (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) and a McCrea baseline jumper making the score 56-55. Dunn knocked down a three on the Golden Flashes’ next trip to put the three-seed up by four, 59-55. Kent State led by six, 63-57, when Drake made her fifth three with 1.3 seconds left to get NIU within three, 63-60. The Huskies fouled Shumate with 0.9 seconds left to put her on the free throw line. Shumate missed both free throws, but the Huskies could not get a last-second shot off and Kent State escaped to the semifinals.

The Golden Flashes shot 39.7 percent from the field to NIU’s 36.8 percent. The Huskies were 7-for-25 from the three-point line with Kent State 6-for-18. Tyler led the Golden Flashes with 15 points off the bench. Dunn, Shumate and Batsch each had 14 points with Dunn adding a game-high 15 rebounds.

The Huskies closed the 2023-24 season with a record of 15-16.

“Any team is going to evaluate at the end of the year what you have coming back and what holes do you have to fill,” Carlsen said about the season coming to a close. “We have four seniors that played big roles for us in different ways. The core of this team is back and we don’t have huge holes to fill because of the culture we’ve built and the connectivity we have. I feel real good about getting back to Cleveland next year and making some noise when we get here.”