The Northern Illinois University women’s basketball team led by eight late in the third quarter over the Eastern Kentucky Colonels Tuesday night at the Clive M. Beck Center, only to see EKU take advantage of turnovers and cold shooting to rally for a 76-64 win.

“We’re going to look back at the shots we got in the fourth quarter and want them back,” said head coach Lisa Carlsen. “We just were not good enough offensively in the second half to sustain the success we had in the first half. Sometimes those poor offensive possessions jumpstarted their transition game and gave them opportunities in the open court.”

NIU (4-5) and EKU traded baskets to start the game as a pair of Althea Angeles jumpers put the Colonels up 6-5 with 6:10 left in the first. A Chelby Koker (Racine, Wis./Shoreland Lutheran) jumper sparked a 9-2 NIU run over the next 3:14 that put the Huskies ahead 14-8. The Colonels cut the deficit to three with 1:12 to go in the first before Koker made two free throws to put NIU in front 18-13.

EKU (9-3) scored the first four points of the second to take a 19-18 lead. Brooke Stonebraker (Versailles, Ohio/Versailles) put NIU back in front with four straight points, including a three-pointer, to make the score 22-19 with 6:16 left until halftime. The Colonels tied the game on a Raphaela Toussaint three-point play, but the Huskies responded with a 9-1 run over 3:20 to take a 31-23 lead. Brooke Blumenfeld (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) scored four points in the run including the basket that put NIU up by eight, its largest lead. Blumenfeld also made a basket with seven seconds left to give NIU a 35-29 halftime advantage.

The Colonels cut the lead to one early in the third quarter before Stonebraker scored four straight to make the score 39-34. The Huskies got the lead back up to eight 47-39, with 2:44 left on back-to-back jumpers from Sidney McCrea (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) and Alecia Doyle (Carterville, Ill./SEMO). NIU made just one field goal the rest of the quarter as EKU closed on a 7-2 run to make the score 49-46 going into the fourth. The run stretched to a 16-4 run in the fourth quarter, capped by an Angeles three and a Kaitlyn Costner basket, that gave the Colonels a 55-51 lead with 7:56 to go.

Stonebraker got the Huskies within one on her second three of the night, making the score 55-54 with 7:00 to go. Liz Freihofer scored five points in a 9-2 EKU run that put the Colonels ahead 64-56 with just over four minutes to go. NIU cut the lead in half on back-to-back layups by Koker and Laura Nickel (Marshall, Wis./Marshall), 64-60, but would make just one more field goal the rest of the way. Freihofer made two more late threes as EKU extended its lead to 13, 76-62, with 0:29 left to lock up its eighth consecutive win.

Stonebraker led NIU with 18 points and nine rebounds, going 6-for-11 from the field with two threes. Koker battled through early foul trouble to score 15 points with nine rebounds and a game-high five assists.

“The few minutes we had to play without Brooke tonight were tough for us because she was really effective on both ends of the floor,” said head coach Lisa Carlsen. “We’re a lot better team defensively with her on the floor. There were some stretches with her on the bench, with Chelby [Koker] on the bench, were situtations that we want to try and stay out of so we can do what we want to do with the players that we need to do it with.”

Freihofer led all scorers with 24 points off the bench for EKU, making six threes. NIU outrebounded the Colonels 46-39 but EKU was able to score 20 points off 18 Huskie turnovers.

NIU returns home on Friday, Dec. 20 to take on Idaho State at 1 p.m. at the NIU Convocation Center for Holiday Hoops. Tickets are available now at NIUHuskies.com/tickets or by calling (815) 753-PACK (7225).