DeKALB | Coming into Saturday afternoon’s matchup against the Huskies, Akron women’s basketball had never won a game in DeKalb. That streak came to a convincing halt, as the Zips (10-12, 3-7 MAC) put together a dominating first half to beat the Huskies (9-14, 3-7 MAC) 72-43. NIU has now lost three of its last four games.

“Honestly, we had a really poor game,” Huskies head coach Kathi Bennett said. “We kind of laid an egg. I don’t think that’s going to happen again.”

NIU couldn’t do anything right against Akron.

On offense, the Huskies were plagued with numerous mistakes and never found a way to get synchronized with each other. NIU committed 15 first-half turnovers. Akron would make them pay, as the Zips scored 18 points off the Huskies mishandlings in the first half.

“As a coaching staff, we need to do a better job at getting better looks for Marke [Freeman and] better looks for Ebony [Ellis],” Bennett said.

Akron head coach Jodi Kest credited the Zips’ success to the pressure her team put on Freeman, which threw off the Huskies offensive tempo and inevitably lead Akron to victory.

“We did a phenomenal job in the first-half defensively,” Kest said. “I thought our kids did a great job on Freeman.”

The Huskies’ defense, which had been the team’s backbone over its last five games, allowing 59.4 points, broke Saturday at the Convocation Center. The Zips threw the ball into the interior often, picking on Ellis.

Akron scored 22 of its 37 first half points in the paint. Leading the offensive charge was the Zips forward Rachel Tecca, who ended with a game-high 18 points along with 13 rebounds.

“[Akron] came in incredibly prepared,” Bennett said. “They had a lot of sets, a lot of screens and just really got off to a great start.”

The Huskies’ two leading scorers in Ellis and Freeman will likely put Saturday’s performances behind them.

Ellis was the only NIU player to have more than one field goal made in the first half, going 4-for-6 with eight points while the rest of her teammates shot 2-for-17. The redshirt senior ended the game with a team-leading 16 points but they certainly weren’t easy baskets. Ellis mishandled a few passes inside while Tecca did about whatever she wanted to on offense.

“I think at one point in the game we were trying to cram it [inside] so much,” Freeman said. “[Akron] started to key on [Ellis] and that’s when we’ve got to get other looks.”