The women’s basketball team (10-11, 2-8 Mid-American Conference) could not end its losing streak Wednesday as the Miami of Ohio Redhawks (13-8, 5-5 MAC) evened the career series at 19 games a piece.

“We definitely didn’t play a good 40 minutes of basketball,” said Head Coach Lisa Carlsen. “You have to credit Miami defensively where they did a really nice job of disrupting us on the offensive end, and we struggled to get in any kind of a flow.”

The Redhawks shot 42 percent from the field as opposed to the Huskies who didn’t have much flow on the offensive side of the ball, shooting 26 percent.

Senior forward Kelly Smith was a main cog on the defensive side of the ball, bringing instant energy and hauling down four rebounds in the first quarter.

Entering the second quarter of play with a Miami of Ohio 17-11 lead, freshman guard Gabby Nikitinaite sparked the team with five points off the bench.

“You saw glimpses tonight of what [Gabby] is able to bring to the table,” Carlsen said. “She affected all facets of the game, getting to the rim, shooting the basketball. We know she has the skill set to be a dynamic player.”

The Redhawks showed a lot of cohesiveness with 13 assists coming off 35 points in the half.

Things got a little chippy at the Convocation Center to start the third quarter, as Smith went up on a second chance opportunity but was fouled hard by RedHawks senior guard Kayla Brown.

“Miami does a really good job of being physical,” Smith said. “It usually throws teams off, and I think that the refs miss some stuff sometimes, especially when you’re going up for a shot, it gets a little rough.”

Later in the quarter, junior guard Courtney Woods had to be yanked from the game with four fouls with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Miami gained a little more momentum going into the fourth quarter with a long buzzer-beating 3-point field goal by RedHawks sophomore guard Lauren Dickerson.

Starting the final quarter of play down by a score of 58-47, the Huskies came out with energy attacking the basket and a ferocious effort on both sides of the ball.

Though NIU got within eight points with just over three minutes remaining, the hot-shooting RedHawks, who ended up with a 49 percent field goal percentage, defeated NIU by a score of 77-62.

The RedHawks had five players in double figures and had 23 points off of turnovers compared to 14 for the Huskies.

This marks the seventh straight loss by NIU, all coming at the expense of sophomore guard Myia Starks’ season-ending ACL injury.

NIU will look to avenge its loss against the Kent State Golden Flashes 1:00 p.m. Saturday in Kent, Ohio.