Women’s basketball won 12 games and lost 17 times in 2014-15. It went 8-10 in conference play and was bounced from the MAC Tournament in the first round. It registered only three victories away from home.

Yet, 2014-15 proved to be head coach Kathi Bennett’s best coaching job in her five seasons at NIU. Managing a Div. I basketball team is a tall task; keeping that team together and on track through injuries that ravaged more than half the roster requires a certain level of leadership and command.

“This was completely new,” Bennett said. “I’ve had a single dominant player go down, but I’ve never had as many impact players go down. It was kind of a unique situation. I think this team really handled the adversity well. I’ve never had as many injuries in my career, and I’ve been coaching 26 years. It definitely was unique.”

Condensed roster

Only three Huskies — redshirt senior Jenna Thorp, sophomore guard Ally Lehman and true freshman forward Kelly Smith, named to the MAC All-Freshman Team — played in all 29 games. Even with a lack of available bodies, the Huskies stayed in games late, but they went 3-6 in games decided by five or fewer points.

“I’m so proud of the team and how we hung together,” Bennett said. “Besides Ohio and at Toledo we were in every game. We competed our butts off. Nobody kind of knows what you go through besides the team, and we know what we did and how hard we worked and how well we stayed together.”

On most nights the Huskies went with a seven- or eight-player rotation. As the minutes began to pile up and starters played 35-plus minutes, Bennett said the team did more film sessions and walkthroughs instead of intense practices.

“Defense — that’s what we hang our hat on — it’s something that’s not natural,” Bennett said. “It takes effort, energy and you have to do the repetition. And that [lack of practice] hurt us. Also chemistry on the court — playing with each other — as the season wears on when you don’t practice as much comes into play, too.”

Still, the Huskies held teams to 55.8 points per game, the best mark of the Bennett era. Their previous best came in 2011-12 and 2012-13 when they held opponents to 59.5 points.

Battling through the pain

At the end of the season, the Huskies managed an eight seed in the MAC Tournament, hosting a playoff game which they lost, 49-44, to the Central Michigan Chippewas on March 9 at the Convocation Center. Bennett described the MAC West as “tremendous” and was very proud of how the Huskies won eight conference games.

Winning four games in a row during late January and early February, the Huskies came up one game short of becoming the first team in program history to win five games in a row as a member of the MAC.

Deflecting any praise, Bennett credited her coaching staff and the student-athletes as much if not more than herself.

“The one think I take from the season was we were a true team,” Bennett said. “I think we really relied on each other. I felt like we were very together.”