AMARILLO, Texas—Based on the NIU women’s basketball team’s performance Thursday, the NCAA selection committee made the right decision when they chose the field for the NCAA Tournament.

To the disappointment of all the Huskies, the committee didn’t feel NIU, which had lost three of its final four games, was one of the top-48 teams in the country. Maybe now the Huskies will admit that they didn’t deserve a bid to the “big dance.”

The lower-seeded University of Houston (No. 6) dominated the third-seeded NIU all afternoon en route to the Cougars’ 83-71 first-round National Women’s Invitational Tournament triumph.

Much like NIU’s three previous setbacks, the Huskies (24-9) started out very cold from the field and just couldn’t overcome the big deficits.

Houston (20-10) raced out to a 14-point advantage just six minutes into the action and led by as many as 20 midway through the second half.

“A lot of that is because we’re still a little bit on the emotional side of the last two weeks,” NIU coach Jane Albright said. “Starting so poorly just really shocked us all. It really devastated us when we shot so poorly in the opening minutes.”

For the game, the Huskies only shot 37 percent from the field, compared to the 54 percent from the Cougars.

“We took the same shots that we always take,” Albright said. “That’s what was so amazing. It was just performance—shooting poorly.

“Dee Dee Jeske and Diana Wingus played really good in the first half. Dee Dee kept us in it the first half,” Albright said.

Enthusiasm never really sided with the Huskies either, until the final 6:54 of the contest. Lisa Foss, who led all scorers with 24 points, canned one of her four tres on the day.

The 3-pointer pulled NIU to within 69-58, and for the first time in the game, the Huskies’ bench responded and the players seemed full of life.

Foss’ spark ignited a Huskies’ comeback to within five points with 4:09 remaining (71-66). But, like they had done each time before, the Cougars wouldn’t let the Huskies get any closer.

“I thought a really positive side was in the second half,” Albright said. “Because I thought we did start well in the second.”

As for the near-miraculous run, Albright admitted that it may have been too much at one time.

“We used all of our energy to get to that point,” Albright said. “And it was like we didn’t have anything after that.”

Cindy Conner was the only other Huskie to tally double figures. The sophomore scored 15 points, and ripped down a game-high 18 rebounds.

The highest NIU can finish now out of the eight teams is fifth place. The losers bracket commences Friday at 3 p.m. when the Huskies battle Indiana, who pounded the University of Alabama-Birmingham 110-71 Thursday night.

If NIU loses Friday it will play at 1 p.m. Saturday, but if NIU wins Friday it will play at 3 p.m. Saturday.

All tournament games will be broadcast live on WKDI-FM radio 93.5 and on NIU’s TV-8, audio only.