Inner unrest began to set in among the NIU women’s basketball team, and it started to show during last weekend’s NWIT.

After compiling a 23-5 ledger throughout the majority of the season, NIU dropped three-of-four games before the NWIT even started.

Given a week off from practice, NIU coach Jane Albright felt her team would be ready to end the season on a positve note. Well, the Huskies (25-10) capped the season with a nearly disastrous finish.

Not only did the struggling squad lose its first two contests in the tourney, but Albright was forced to suspend the North Star Conference Newcomer of the Year, Cindy Conner.

Apparently, the one-game suspension followed an altercation that took place after NIU’s second-round loss to the University of Alabama-Birmingham (78-71). In the postgame handshaking ceremony, Conner and a Lady Blazer exchanged some words. Albright stepped in front of Conner before anything else was able to take place.

Even though the exact reasoning was not disclosed, Albright said that Conner would not participate in the last game of the season for “breaking team policy.”

As the Huskies filed out of the lockerroom, every single player hung her head, anticipating the end of the year.

Before Friday’s UAB game ever started, Albright echoed the team’s frustration as she inserted a new lineup that did not include seniors Denise Dove or Toby Meeks. The starting five did include: Lisa Foss, Conner, Deb Teske, Tianna Burkholder, and Dee Dee Jeske. But the seventh-year coach merely tabbed the change an experiment.

“Ever since Alaska, we haven’t had a group that started well,” Albright said. “Debbie Teske and Tianna were the only two that hadn’t had a chance all year to prove that they could start, so we gave them a shot—and they did a good job.”

Fortunately for the Huskies and the four departing seniors (Foss, Meeks, Dove and Denise Lipnisky), NIU was able to ease the season-ending pain with an 84-82 triumph over Notre Dame.

“(The win) will never erase the last two weeks (of the season),” Albright said. “It would’ve been really easy for them to pack their bags and go home, but they chose not to—that was a great win.”