assistant sports editor

After five straight road losses, the NIU women’s basketball team returned home Tuesday night and found a winning combination against Notre Dame—live-wire offense and give-it-here defense.

The Huskies moved to 4-8 with the 81-71 victory, which Coach Jane Albright called “the biggest win we’ve had since I’ve been here.

“I think my kids played with more heart than I’ve ever seen them play with, and that’s the thing I’m most proud of,” said Albright. “At the end when they made a run at us, we said ‘No way, we’re going to win it.’ We deserved to win that game. It would have been a crime if we hadn’t.”

The Huskies downed a towering but cumbersome Irish squad by running and keeping the pressure at a fever pitch on defense. NIU’s zone forced Irish shooters outside, and they found the rim unfriendly. Notre Dame Coach Mary DiStanislao was none too pleased.

“That press that they threw at us opened up a lot of opportunities for us. We just didn’t connect. We didn’t deviate from our game plan at all,” said DiStanislao.

The Irish shot 43 percent for the night, missing badly from outside. Notre Dame likes to get the ball inside to use their height, but only managed to do so late.

The Huskies jumped out to a 6-2 lead, then saw Notre Dame tie the game with a basket and a converted steal. NIU led the rest of the way, though, with freshmen Tammy Hinchee and Lisa Foss hitting from the field and senior Shelly Roberts finding a hot hand on the free throw line.

The 6-foot Roberts finished with a personal season-high of 19 points, including 9 of 10 from the line. Roberts also led all players with 15 rebounds.

The Huskies benefitted from a balanced scoring attack from four of their starters. Along with Roberts’ 19 points, Foss contributed 20, Hinchee had 18 and Gena Stubbs added 22. Notre Dame leaned heavily on 6-2 junior Sandy Botham for their scoring, as the center finished with 28 points.

Notre Dame did make a run at victory with 5:57 to play in the second half. NIU owned its biggest lead of the night at 66-52 before ND scored seven straight as part of a 13-4 blitz.

But the Irish could not keep the Huskies off the line. With NIU leading 70-65 and 1:34 remaining, Foss drew a foul and started a five-point Huskie run with a conversion. NIU dumped in 21 of 26 free throws in all, including 13 of 14 in the second half.