Saturday’s women’s basketball game at Chick Evans Field House was a coach’s dream—a NIU coach’s dream, that is.

The Huskies, behind 1,526 enthusiastic fans, made their brief stop at home a memorable one as NIU (17-3, 6-0) remained the only undefeated team in the North Star Conference with an 84-60 victory over the Phoenix from Wisconsin-Green Bay.

With the win, 6-foot-3 All-America candidate Carol Owens became NIU’s all-time leading scorer for men’s and women’s basketball. Owens, who was honored at halftime for becoming the all-time women’s leading scorer, quickly put that feat behind her. The senior needed only 17 minutes and some crowd enticement to pass the men’s mark set back in 1978-82 by Allen Rayhorn.

NIU coach Jane Albright, apparently unaware of how close Owens actually was to the record, took the center out of the game with about 3:30 left in the game. That’s when the fans had their say. Chants of “We Want Carol, We Want Carol,” finally got to the coach and Albright called Owens off the bench, and the fieldhouse started to shake.

About 15 seconds after re-entering the game, Owens took a pass from Dee Dee Jeske with 3:00 left and laid it in. That bucket officially broke the mark, but the scorers’ table announced that Owens tied the record with the basket. Albright put all five starters back in the game, and after a time out, set up a play designed to get Owens the record.

Denise Dove lofted a pass to Owens on the right side of the basket, but Owens drew a foul. She hit the first free throw and the crowd erupted with applause as the team huddled around “C.O.” to celebrate the point. Owens finished the game with 26 points (1,851 career points) on 10-of-11 from the field and 6-of-7 from the charity stripe.

“Has anybody ever had a better game, 10-of-11 and 6-of-7?” Albright said. “I think it’s a real tribute to her and the journey that she has had along the way that there could be this many people to share that with her.”

As a team, the rest of the Huskies also shot the lights out. NIU ended up shooting a season-high 65 percent from the floor and missed only one free throw (20-of-21).

“We shot the ball phenomenally,” Albright said. “We either turned the ball over or shot it 65 percent, and I think our shot selection was very good against a great defensive team.”

Lisa Foss was second on the Huskie list with 20 points and 7 rebounds, and Tammy Hinchee scored in double-figures in the scoring and rebounding categories with 14 and 13, respectively. Kris Weis, Tracy Mondek and Dove all added six points to the winning cause.

“I would like to have a Carol Owens and a Tammy Hinchee,” UWGB coach Pat Hammerle said. “I thought they did an excellent job. Northern has got so much fire power—they’re really a good ball club.”

“This was a great team effort,” Albright said. “This group has got that look in their eyes and I think our best ball is in front of us—it’s fun…fun, fun, fun.”