They were given the green light and they were gone.

Coach Jane Albright gave the NIU women’s basketball team the opportunity to steal the ball and go when they had the chance—an order which awarded the Huskies a 93-73 victory over Valparaiso Tueday night.

“I like that kind of green light,” said sophomore Carol Owens, who took advantage of the command on a steal and breakaway layup in the second half, “especially for a post player. We don’t get to dribble the ball that much.”

Reduced turnovers (16) and numerous fast breaks in their controlled running game lifted NIU to a 20-point lead early in the second half. This was the key to the Huskie triumph.

“Anytime you’re running the ball like that and you keep the turnovers under 20, that’s a real good job of ball handling,” Albright said. “One key thing is that our post players didn’t have the turnovers they’ve been getting—but our guards did a real nice job too.”

Owens, who had 10 turnovers alone in the DePaul loss, slimmed the stat down to one.

“I’m trying to concentrate on working on turnovers,” said Owens, who had 14 points for the night. “I think the main thing is having confidence in myself.”

NIU took a season-high 96 shots, of which freshman Dianna Wingis made 80 percent from the floor to score 19 points. Wingis shared the game-high score with Gena Stubbs, who also contributed 19.

“We were definitely running and gunning. We had a lot of missed shots, but I think we capatilized from that and scored,” Albright said. “I think Gena in the first half was a good catalyst, and Toby had another real fine game. I’m real pleased with my point spots.”

Northern grabbed the lead six minutes into the game and kept it the rest of the time. A 10-point streak with 2:30 on the clock led by Kris Weis (four points), Lisa Foss (four) and Stubbs put NIU ahead 39-29 within the first 20.

With the help of Toby Meeks, who scored four of her 10 points in the final minute of the half, the Huskies left for the break with a 45-29 lead.

The Huskies outrebounded the Crusaders and ran coast-to-coast in the second half to take a big lead and keep it. Valparaiso came within 12 when NIU gave up nine unanswered points with six minutes to go, but it was as close as the Crusaders could get.

Albright said she had no worries about losing the game, although she feels the team is struggling with a major problem.

“The poorest thing we do as a team that we’ve got to correct is putting people on the line,” Albright said. The Crusaders shot 22-of-24 from the stripe. “We’ve got to quit fouling people.”

NIU was minus one player tonight as senior Nikki Dallas told Albright Monday she was quitting the team for personal reasons. Dallas joined the team last year as a walk-on transfer student from College of DuPage.

“We wish her the best as she prepares for graduation,” Albright said of Dallas, who averaged 2.1 ppg this season.