Redshirt-Junior guard Sidney McCrea (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Prairie) recorded her first career double-double on Saturday as the Northern Illinois University women’s basketball team fell 69-54 to the Akron Zips at James A. Rhodes Arena Saturday afternoon.

McCrea led NIU with 12 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. She had eight rebounds in the first half alone which tied her previous career high set at Toledo on Jan. 24. McCrea is the third Huskie to have a double-double this season, joining Brooke Stonebraker (Versailles, Ohio/Versailles) and Jayden Marable (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook). Stonebraker had 11 points and seven rebounds.

“We asked a lot of Sidney today,” said head coach Lisa Carlsen. “She’s a super-intelligent player and did everything we asked of her. There were times today where she was our best option to getting the ball in the paint and she was aggressive when we needed her to be.”

NIU (13-15, 6-10 MAC) and Akron traded baskets early with a Kortney Drake (Wilton, Iowa/Kirkwood CC) three giving the Huskies a 5-4 lead at the 8:05 mark of the first. Sparked by five straight points from Zakia Rasheed, Akron went on a 14-5 run over nearly five minutes to take an 18-10 lead with 3:08 to play in the opening quarter. The Zips extended the lead to nine with 0:26 left on a Kaia Woods lay-in, but Tara Stauffacher (Columbus, Wis./Wisconsin) knocked down a three at the end of the quarter to make the score 24-18.

After a slow start offensively by both teams in the second, Akron (10-17, 5-11 MAC) put its lead back up to eight with 6:16 to go as a Morgan Haney basket made the score 28-20. The Huskies responded with seven of the next nine points as Drake’s second three of the game put NIU within three, 28-25, with 4:30 to go until halftime. The Zips went up by eight points again with 0:43 left in the second on a Lanae Riley triple, making the score 38-30. Drake cut the deficit to six with a layup with 0:10 left, putting the halftime score at 38-32.

The Huskies closed within four points early in the third as baskets by Stonebraker and Brooke Blumenfeld (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) made the score 40-36 with 8:57 to play in the quarter. Akron then ran away with a 15-2 run over the next 4:40, sparked by back-to-back threes from Reagan Bass and Teniesha Clarke, to go ahead 55-38 with 4:17 remaining in the third quarter. Bass and Clarke combined for 12 of the 15 points in that stretch. NIU held the Zips without a field goal for the remainder of the quarter as Stonebraker and McCrea combined to go on a 6-1 run to get the Huskies within 12, 56-44.

“If you let any team get comfortable early, you’re in for a long night,” Carlsen said. “I wasn’t happy with our defensive intensity in the first half. Now you’re in a spot where you’re begging for every shot you take to go in, and it doesn’t and you’re playing from behind.”

Akron put the game away with an 8-3 run in the fourth quarter to go up 64-49 with under four minutes to go. The three points in that run for NIU came on a McCrea three that locked up her double-double.

NIU shot 32.8 percent from the field but was just 6-for-28 from long range. Akron shot 44.3 percent from the field with Bass leading all players with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Haney added 15 points and a game-high five assists.

The Huskies return to action on Wednesday, March 6 at Miami. Tip-off is at 6 p.m. CT.