No Retreat…No Surrender…

Those were the words written on the back of the DePaul sweat tops, but when the game went into trenches during overtime, NIU women’s basketball coach Jane Albright and her players had the Blue Demons waving the white flag.

A red-hot Huskie team brought a positive frame of mind into Chick Evans Field House Thrusday night and handed DePaul a stunning 86-82 North Star Conference loss before a record-setting NIU women’s basketball crowd of 1,254.

“We (NIU) knew this was going to be war,” Albright said. “It was a very, very big war. We were nervous. This was a big crowd and a big game. There was a lot on the line.”

When Albright spoke of a war she was right. Throughout the game there were words going back and forth between the teams. When the game ended, a shoving match broke out near mid-court where players from both teams were restrained before a real brawl could unfold.

With just over 10 seconds left in regulation. NIU’s Carol Owens followed up her shot and scored from five feet to tie the game at 73 and send the game into overtime.

In the extra period, NIU’s Denise Dove canned a 3-pointer to give the Huskies an uncomfortable 82-79 lead with 1:27 left on the game clock. DePaul drove the ball down court, where Diana Vines (28 points) pumped from 3-point range only to come up empty.

After a Blue Demon time-out, the Huskies got the ball back and went to the foul line following DePaul fould with :34. Dove sank both ends of a one-and-one free-throw opportunity to boost the score to 84-79. Another Blue Demon foul put Huskie Kris Weis on the charity stripe to up the score to 85-79.

Vines iced a 3-pointer from 23 feet to pull DePaul to within 3 points of the Huskies, but Weiss went to the line to hit the front end of a one-and-one to give NIU the win.

The leading scorer for the Huskies was Owens with a career-high 34 points and 12 rebounds. Dove stood next in line with 16 points, while going 6 for 6 from the free-throw line. Tammy Hinchee tied Owens under he glass with 12 rebounds.

The win gave the Huskies its first-ever win over DePaul, while increasing the NIU winning streak to eight games, NIU also remains unbeaten at home in the “Huskie Den”.