What happened

Women’s basketball (10-11, 6-5 MAC) had its four-game win streak stopped by the visiting Western Michigan Broncos (16-7, 9-3 MAC), 60-51, Wednesday at the Convocation Center.

How it happened

In the first half the Huskies controlled the Broncos with their defense and held them to only 30 percent shooting from the field, including 33.3 percent from behind the 3-point line. NIU was knocking down its shots, making 44.4 percent from the field. Broncos junior forward Miracle Woods wasn’t herself in the first half as she only had eight points off of 3-7 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds.

That all changed in the second half, though. The Broncos’ offense caught on fire mainly due to Woods and junior guard Alex Morton. Morton finished the second half with 13 points on 2-4 shooting from the field and 9-10 from the free-throw line. Woods destroyed NIU in the paint with 14 points in the second half while grabbing nine more rebounds.

The Huskies couldn’t get their offense to sustain itself the entire second half. They led 44-41 with 7:40 to play before the Broncos went on a 10-0 run. The Huskies didn’t score another basket until there was 1:31 left to play. The Broncos continued to pull away as NIU was forced to foul and Western Michigan hit nine of its 10 free-throw attempts to close the game.

The number: 37

That is the number of points the Broncos scored on NIU in the second half. They shot 47.4 percent from the field and 90.9 percent from the free-throw line. In the first half they struggled, only shooting 30 percent from the field and scoring 23 points.

Northern Star players of the game

Huskies sophomore guard Ally Lehman recorded a double-double in a losing effort as she finished the game with a team-high 13 points and 10 rebounds. She added two assists and two steals in 36 minutes.

The Broncos’ Woods crumbled NIU with her performance, scoring a game-high 22 points off of 8-16 shooting and grabbing a game-high 17 rebounds.

The quotes

“We played a really good game, and we had some opportunities down the stretch,” said head coach Kathi Bennett. “Last game we knocked those down and this game we didn’t. Western Michigan is a really good team; they’re 9-3 in our league and one of the best teams in the MAC, and we gave them everything we had.”

“We didn’t really shoot the ball well tonight, but you can’t really control that, and it was frustrating, but next time we play them we will be with them,” said senior guard Amanda Corral.

Miracle Woods is “fantastic in the low post position, and she is a lot better at kicking it out of double teams and getting it back,” Bennett said. “The disappointing thing is the 17 boards. … Yeah, she is going to score, but we needed to do a better job on the offensive glass.”

Up next

The Huskies go back on the road to take on the Kent State Golden Flashes (3-19, 1-10 MAC) 1 p.m. Saturday in Kent, Ohio.