In an ironic twist, what normally gives the NIU women’s basketball team its momentum in a game hurt the Huskies in their 82-67 loss to Northwestern Tuesday night at Chick Evans Field House.

The floor game is usually the main staple for NIU, while an overload of fouls ends up hurting the Huskies. Not Tuesday night. NIU only collected 12 fouls during last night’s contest, eight of which were in the second half.

It was the missed field goals that contributed to the demise of the Huskies. In the second 20 minutes of play, NIU shot 18 of 46 from the floor to give the Huskies a .391 field goal percentage. This can be compared to the ‘Cats’ .679 clip.

The Huskies’ overall record dropped to 8-13, while Northwestern upped its slate to 8-10.

“I think Northwestern deserves a lot of credit,” NIU coach Jane Albright said. “They shot extremely well. All but one player shot over 50 percent. Their record doesn’t indicate their caliber.”

The Huskies came out aggressively in the first half and was only down by five points at halftime at 36-31. In fact, NIU did hold a lead for a while in the opening sesson. At the 7:47 mark, the Huskies took their biggest lead of the game at 26-22 after a Gena Stubbs’ assist to Dianna Wingis was good for two points.

Northwestern quickly closed that gap after a right-handed layup by Robin Garrett and a 5-foot turnaround jump shot by Mya Whitmore made it 26-26.

The Huskies did not score for almost another six minutes while the ‘Cats kept hitting the bucket. NU’s Laura Arnold, who led all scorers with 20 points, chipped in two points and Kelly Cole dumped in four. Carrie Lawless and Whitmore each added a basket to help pace the Wildcats to their half-time lead.

Northwestern used its half-court game to control the Huskies. NIU could not get into its running game, which is the reason for the low scoring game.

“In the first half we took only 27 shots and they took 33,” Albright said. “That is not the game we want to play.”

The Huskies gained posession at the start of the last part of the game, but Northwestern took the ball away after NIU had three chances for a bucket and did not succeed.

It was at this point there was no stopping NU. The closest NIU ever got to the ‘Cats in the final 20 was early in the half when Carol Owens hit a seven-foot turnaround to bring the score to 55-45.

“Stubbs and (Lisa) Foss played as hard as they could,” Albright said. “Lisa had five steals, which was over half of the team’s. She also did a nice job of shutting Cole out in the second half.”

Foss was leading scorer for the Huskies with 18 points. Stubbs followed with 14. NIU’s Tammy Hinchee led all players in rebounding with 13.

“I was disappointed in our overall game,” Albright said. “We’re a much better team than we showed.”

One positive for the Huskies was that they reached their goal to foul less. Albright thought that was a bright spot for the team to think about. Although the Huskies were also hoping to win the rest of their games, they are not hanging their heads.

The Huskies travel to Milwaukee, Wis., on Saturday to take on North Star Conference foe Marquette. It is an important meeting for the Huskies, who want to even their conference record at 3-3.

“We’ve got to get ready,” Albright said. “We’ve got to get up to play another conference game.”

For anyone interested in seeing Tuesday night’s game, Sportsvision will be televising the contest Thursday at 7 p.m.