The dreaded line.

The NIU women’s basketball team put Miami (Fla.) on the free-throw line 33 times Saturday, with the Hurricanes sinking seven of their 22 hits in the final two minutes of the game to seal an 88-80 decision.

“It’s a charity line in the truest sense of the word,” said coach Jane Albright. “You give the game away when you put a team at the free-throw line 33 times—it’s very frustrating.”

Winning at home seems to be the story as last year’s NIU vs. Miami game at Chick Evans saw a 77-72 victory for the Huskies. Saturday’s game dropped NIU to an 8-12 standing in overall game play.

Despite the Huskie advantage of 36 made field goals to the Hurricanes 32, NIU was only given the chance to make 8-of-13 from the stripe.

“This is the fourth game in a row where we’ve outscored the other team from the floor,” Albright said, “but we keep fouling enough to hurt ourselves.”

NIU snapped back from a 23-10 deficit with 9:34 to go in the first half to cut Miami’s lead to 41-35 at halftime. Coming into the second 20, NIU scored the first six points to tie the score.

A series of traded buckets led to a first-time lead for the Huskies following a basket by sophomore Lisa Foss just minutes into the half.

One of the few times NIU did go to the line resulted in the biggest lead that the Huskies held all night, when junior Gena Stubbs tossed in a free throw to make the score 58-51 with 12:22 to play.

Miami played catch-up and snuck within one point as All-American Maria Rivera—who was kept short of her 23.8 average with 18 points for the night—brought the Hurricanes to a 64-63 trailing score with just over seven minutes left.

But Rivera was backed up by the efforts of teammate Melissa Edwards, who scored a team-high 21 points for the evening.

“As a team we held Rivera well below her average, but Edwards picked up the slack for them, especially converting offensive rebounds,” Albright said. “They outrebounded us badly, especially at their end of the court.”

Tammy Hinchee capped a three-point play—a portion of her season-high 23 points for the night—with 4:16 left to lift NIU to a 77-73 lead.

“Tammy had her best game of the season,” Albright said. “We expect this kind of play from her for the rest of the year.”

Following Hinchee’s score, NIU gave up four unanswered points and Miami tied the game at 77. Foss took charge one last time and scored a bucket plus the front end of a one-and-one to end the scoring for the Huskies with 2:16 left in the game.

Of the Hurricanes next nine points scored, seven came from the line—the statistic which hurt the Huskies the most. However, NIU shined over Miami in steals 15-11.

“I thought we had several critical turnovers toward the end of the game,” Albright said. “On the positive side, 15 steals was a real plus.”