NIU women’s basketball fell to the Indiana State Sycamores 52-58 last night after a close game in Terra Haute, Indiana.

Indiana State came out struggling missing its first seven shots and allowed NIU to get out in front 9-6 at the first media timeout with 14:47 left in the first half.

The Sycamores then came out on a 9-2 run to put themselves up 13-9 but the Huskies responded with an 8-0 run of their own making it 19-13 with around seven minutes left in the half.

The first half ended, 22-23, with the Huskies down by one point. NIU spread the scoring out between seven different players as senior guard/forward Satavia Taylor had a team-high five points in the first half.

In the second half, NIU sophomore guard Amanda Corral came out firing. Corral had 15 points in the second half alone, ending with game with 19 points. She went three of six from behind the arc.

Corral thought the Indiana State defense did a good job throwing off the Huskies attack.

“When they were in man-to-man I think we did a good job,” Corral said. “But when they went into a 1-3-1 zone we hadn’t really seen that before. So I think that kind of just threw us off and I think we need to think we need to work on our offense cause we hadn’t really seen a 1-3-1 before.”

Turnovers really hurt the Huskies as in the middle of the second half the Sycamores went on a 13-2 run giving them a 45-40 lead over NIU with 5:38 left in the half.

The Sycamores closed out the game beating NIU 58-52 thanks to strong play from their guards. Senior guard Taylor Whitley had a team-high 18 points while junior guard Anna Munn added 15 points going 10 of 10 from the free throw line.

NIU coach Kathi Bennett said Indiana State out played NIU on their home court.

“It was a really disappointing loss,” Bennett said. “It was a game I thought we should have won but it’s hard to win with 26 turnovers. On their home court they really out hustled us, out toughed us, and showed us that they really wanted it.”

Junior guard Ashley Sneed finished the game with four points in 19 minutes of play and said the Huskies were their own worst enemy today.

“I felt that we really came out with energy, with toughness and our foot on the gas but I think in the second half we really beat ourselves,” Sneed said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the other team I just think we beat ourselves. We just need to get it together and work more together on everything.“