NIU women’s basketball (3-14, 1-5 MAC) made the road trip east to Athens, Ohio, to face the Ohio University Bobcats (11-5, 5-1 MAC) on Saturday, looking to get back in the win column.
A sluggish first half for the Huskies gave the Bobcats the advantage, before a fourth-quarter comeback attempt from NIU fell just short for a 66-62 loss.
“Just really happy with our effort and the fact that we competed”, said NIU women’s basketball head coach Jacey Brooks. “We competed for 40 minutes, I can’t ask for anything more.”
Four Huskies scored in double-digits, led by freshman guard Sa’Mahn Johnson (16), graduate guard Nadechka Laccen (15), freshman guard Emilie Sorensen (14) and forward junior Nevaeh Wingate (10).
Laccen and senior guard Maria Serrcanta combined for 13 assists while senior forward Teresa Mbemba dominated the paint with 13 of the Huskies’ 44 rebounds.
“We couldn’t value the ball the way we wanted to, just silly turnovers,” said Sorensen. “So I think if we could have limited those, it could’ve resulted in us winning.”
The first quarter was back-and-forth as the side traded possessions with limited conversions. The Huskies struggled to find an offensive rhythm, shooting 25% from the field and 16.7% from three. The Bobcats had the same struggle, shooting 13.3% and 16.7% from behind the arc and giving NIU a two-point lead to end the first.
The Bobcats pulled away in the middle of the second quarter, and combined with costly turnovers and fouls from NIU, the Huskies trailed by nine heading into the break.
The Huskie’s offense came alive in the third while the defense forced tough shots from the Bobcats. NIU took advantage of Ohio’s slump, going on a 10-0 run and taking the lead back with three minutes left. However, Ohio’s clutch shooting regained a 5- point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
“We would throw our zone in there and then change back to man, I think that really slowed them down because they do like to score a lot in transition,” Sorensen said.
Foul trouble and turnovers kept possession in the Bobcats’ hands and resulted in Laccen and Serracanta fouling out in the dying moments.
Despite outscoring Ohio in three quarters, a sluggish second quarter, Bobcats’ bench production and points from turnovers (2-24) proved to be the difference as the Huskies suffered their third consecutive defeat and fell to 11th place in the Mid-American Conference.
“They (Ohio) have a lot of experience so kudos to them, they made plays when it mattered,” Brooks said. “I hope the girls believe that when we want to get a stop, we can continue to make teams have difficult shots, that’s our goal.”
UP NEXT
The Huskies return home to host Western Michigan University at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Convocation Center. The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and live stats will be updated on SIDEARM Sports.
