Exchanging gifts before a game has become the custom when teams from different countries meet in competition, and Friday’s women’s basketball game in the Chick Evans Field House was no exception.

However, head coach Jane Albright and her squad gave the Sweden National Team a little something extra at the end of the game—an 89-79 loss.

“It was a moral victory,” Albright said. “We executed well. We did the things we thought we could do, and we did them well.”

Although Solna was a more experienced team and had a height advantage, the Huskies were able to execute the game plan well en route to the victory.”

Solna coach Tomas Bergstrom said, “In a tight game like this, you have to be sharp in the mind. We lost our rhythm. We should have been able to win the game early.”

Huskie center Carol Owens led all scoring with 29 points, while Solna’s Anne-Lee Edwardzon was one behind with 28 points. Other top scorer’s for the Huskies were Lisa Foss with 22 points, Denise Dove with 14 and Tammy Hinchee at 12.

In the first half, NIU hit only 27 percent of its shots from the field, but the Huskies turned the second frame around, shooting 57 percent from the floor.

NIU and Solna played head-to-head in the first half with the lead switching back and forth. In the first eight minutes of the game, Owens was the offense for the Huskies. The 6-foot-3 junior scored the first 13 points for NIU until Dove nailed a three-ponter to tie the game at 16.

Senior co-captain Gena Stubbs recorded six points, 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals for NIU. Stubbs also accounted for one of the five three-point shots successfully taken by the Huskies. Dove sank the other four.

In the second half, NIU took a 49-47 lead with 16:26 left to play and never let the Swedes take over. In the last three minutes of play, the Huskies outscored their opponent nine points to three.