DeKALB — The women’s basketball team celebrated its fourth annual Education Day game Wednesday when it invited seven elementary and junior high school’s from the Chicagoland area to the Convocation Center.

947 children, teachers and chaperones packed the Convocation Center only to watch NIU struggle mightily from the 3-point range, going 8-for-33.

The 11 a.m. start may have played a factor in the game as NIU (12-5, 5-1 Mid-American Conference) lost, 55-84, against the Akron University Zips (8-9, 1-5 MAC) for its first conference loss of the season.

“There’s a lot of things we didn’t do very well today,” Head Coach Lisa Carlsen said. “I think we let our offensive struggles really affect our defensive intensity and any time that happens against a team that is really feeling good on the court then you’re going to see the numbers like that.”

The Huskies came into this game with six players averaging double figures for scoring. Sophomore guard Mikayla Voigt led the Huskies with 15 points. Freshman guard Janae Poisson followed with 14 points while Courtney Woods, sophomore guard and forward, had 11. Redshirt senior guard Cassidy Glenn put up nine points of her own along with eight rebounds. Akron was able to stop Ally Lehman, All-Conference candidate and senior guard, from scoring a single basket.

Akron out-hustled NIU in rebounds, 55-37, and offensive runs, 18-10. The start of the game was very back and forth, and it wasn’t until the third quarter that Akron gained momentum which could not be stopped.

Akron made six 3-pointers in the first quarter out of seven shot attempts, and had a 22-15 lead after one quarter, which gave them a 15-7 lead to close it.

Akron still had the lead going into the half, 33-26.

Akron played tight defensively on NIU in the final quarter while also managing to keep up the energy on the offensive end, outscoring the Huskies 23-9.

“I think at this point it’s going to be better for us to try and forget about that and have a short memory from an offensive stand point” said Carlsen.

The Huskies will look to bounce back from this difficult loss and get back to work for their second home game Saturday against Miami. Tip-off will take place at 1 p.m at the Convocation Center as part of a double-header with men’s basketball.