What happened

Women’s basketball (8-10, 4-4 MAC) picked up its first MAC road win of the season as it beat the Ball State Cardinals (10-10, 6-3 MAC), 65-62, Saturday at Worthen Arena in Muncie, Ind.

How it happened

The Huskies led the Cardinals by 13 points, 63-50, with 4:18 left in the second half and needed to fend off a late-game attack from the Cardinals.

Ball State used a 10-0 spurt in the closing minutes to pull within three points, 63-60, with 25 seconds left. The Cardinals fouled senior guard Amanda Corral, and she made both free throws to push the game to 65-60 with only 19 seconds remaining.

Senior guard Shelbie Justice made a layup with seven seconds left to pull the Cardinals within 65-62. The Cardinals forced sophomore Ally Lehman to commit a turnover, but Cardinals sophomore forward Shelby Merder missed a 3-pointer that would have sent the game to overtime.

In a tightly contested half, the Huskies led the Cardinals 34-29 at the break. The teams were almost identical in their play as NIU went 14-29 (48.3 percent) from the field while Ball State went 12-25 (48 percent) from the field. NIU finished the game 48 percent from the field while Ball State shot 46.9 percent.

The number: 21

That is the number of points NIU scored after forcing the Cardinals to commit 16 turnovers in the game. Ball State forced 12 NIU turnovers but was limited to only five points.

Northern Star players of the game

Junior guard Nathalie Fontaine was one of two Cardinals with a team-high 14 points. She also grabbed eight rebounds, dished out three assists and had three steals.

Senior guard Amanda Corral finished with 26 points, a career-high eight assists, six rebounds and one steal.

She scored 16 of her 26 points in the second half, shooting 4-4 from the field and 6-6 at the free-throw line.

The quotes

“I just thought offensively we were really clicking on all cylinders,” said head coach Kathi Bennett, according to an interview broadcast on NIUTube. “Amanda [Corral] was just tremendous, and that was just a great team win.”

Up next

The Huskies play their first of three-straight home games when they take on the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks (3-17, 0-9 MAC) 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Convocation Center.