Women’s basketball (6-7, 2-1 MAC) grounded the Eastern Michigan Eagles (11-3, 1-2 MAC) with a 77-54 win Sunday at the Convocation Center.

The Huskies held the Eagles more than 30 points below their season average (84.9), and junior guard Amanda Corral poured in a career-high 30 points. The victory was head coach Kathi Bennett’s first win against Eastern Michigan in her four seasons at NIU, and the two conference wins match the Huskies’ conference victory total from last season.

“It means a lot,” Bennett said. “We’ve had some competitive games with them. Just last year we should have won a couple and didn’t, and it’s just nice to get a win against Eastern [Michigan]. They’ve kind of been a thorn in the flesh a little bit. It’s nice to get that.”

The Huskies led 36-19 at the half and continued their strong play in the second half. They outscored the Eagles 18-10 in the first 8:54 of the second half and led by as many as 28 points in the second stanza.

EMU played with a full-court press and defensive pressure for nearly the entire game. NIU was able to navigate the EMU press with Corral doing most of the ball handling.

“In the past, they’ve always done that…,” Corral said. “I haven’t handled it great in the past, but I thought today I needed to be strong with the ball and be definitive with my passes.”

Corral added six rebounds, a team-high four assists and two steals while committing only three turnovers in 36 minutes. She was the first Huskie to score 30 points since Marke Freeman scored 30 on Jan. 19, 2011, against Ball State.

Redshirt junior forward Jenna Thorp, despite shooting 1-9 from the floor and 2-2 at the free-throw line for four points, made her presence felt as she grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds. She added two assists and one steal in 30 minutes, and she finished with a team-high plus-minus rating of plus-32.

“Jenna’s kind of an X-factor player…,” Bennett said. “Sometimes her stats might look a little bit ugly, but she does … all the hustle-factor things. … She really hustles and makes things happen.”

Freshman forward Jazmine Harris scored 14 points and grabbed four rebounds. Junior forward Natecia Augusta added 11 points and grabbed five boards. Redshirt junior guard Danny Pulliam recorded a team-high four steals.

NIU jumped out to an 11-2 lead at the first media timeout (15:53) and led by as many as 20 points in the first half, 30-10, with 6:43 to play. The Huskies led 36-19 at the half.

NIU shot 48.3 percent (29-60) for the game and held EMU to only 29.5 percent shooting (18-61). The Huskies won the rebounding battle, 45-37, and dominated in the paint, 38-12.

“I think our biggest thing was trying to stay poised,” Pulliam said. “I know coach talked about it a lot. There were spurts where we weren’t really that poised, but at the beginning I thought we were. She’s been talking about just getting inside-out game and trying to get in to Natecia [Augusta] early and just kicking it out for a good open shot. So I think that was what really helped us at the beginning.”