CHICAGO – Lisa Foss will remember her last visit to Alumni Hall as the night she scored 37 points and literally held off every DePaul threat in the final five minutes. But more importantly, as the evening that NIU knocked off DePaul, 91-82.

Doug Bruno would just like to forget the game. The Blue Demons’ coach fell to the Huskies (13-4, 6-0) for the fourth consecutive time, yet he downplayed Foss’ status as an All-American candidate.

“Lisa Foss started out the season as an All-American candidate,” Bruno said. “She’s no longer a candidate. Halfway through the season, she has earned herself All-America status.”

Foss justified the accusations time and time again on Saturday night. DePaul, which had trailed by as many as 23 points in the first half, cut the NIU lead down to seven with four minutes remaining, 76-69. Foss hit a crucial bucket on the north end to make it nine. Then DePaul dwindled it down to six. Foss countered. The Blue Demons kept chipping away, though.

With 50 seconds left, the NIU margin was five points. Foss got fouled and converted the free throws. Once again DePaul fought back to within five. Once again Lisa Foss buried two free throws with 19 seconds remaining to seal the win. And if that wasn’t enough, Foss iced the triumph with two more freebies as the clock showed two seconds to go.

“Lisa Foss lives for games like this,” NIU coach Jane Albright said. “When it came to be a real tight game, we knew we could go to her, which is exactly what we did. And she came up with a bucket every single time.”

NIU’s two other seniors played at the top of their games also. Denise Dove tallied 11 points and added six assists, not to mention a stellar defensive effort. Also, Toby Meeks set numerous screens for Foss in those crucial final minutes, but still managed to score six points, grab five rebounds and dish-off three times.

“It was a senior night,” Albright said. “Toby Meeks set Lisa some great screens on those special situations plays. Denise hit some real key buckets and I thought her shot selection was perfect.”

Yet one of the biggest sparks came off the bench in junior Dee Dee Jeske. With the game close early on, Jeske scored nine points in one minute which really opened the contest up.

With the win, Albright (110-78) exceeded former coach Dr. Mary Bell’s NIU women’s coaching hallmark of 109 wins.