A successful trip to Ypsilanti, Mich. was not to be had as the Huskies fell to Eastern Michigan 62-35 on Saturday.

After beginning the day with eight straight missed shots, center Ebony Ellis put the Huskies (11-15 overall, 5-8 MAC) on the scoreboard seven minutes after regulation began. By this time, the Eagles (18-9, 9-4) had put NIU in a 7-2 hole, which proved large enough to win.

“I think that some people stopped playing hard,” said NIU forward Kim Davis. “Some people weren’t focused coming in and after that first run that [Eastern] had…I think it was a lack of hustling and having that heart and will power to keep going even though we were down.”

NIU reached the double-digit mark more than 17 minutes into the game on a free-throw by Davis. At this point the Eagles held a 16-point advantage at 26-10.

The first half closed out with a 29-12 lead for the Eagles. The Huskies shot 17.9 percent from the field in the half. EMU was not much better, shooting 25 percent, but the turnovers were the difference.

While Eastern lost the ball three times, NIU coughed it up 15 times in one half. On the day, the Huskies would commit 28 turnovers, the second highest total this season.

“Basically we were very flat, no energy,” said NIU head coach Kathi Bennett. “They got easy baskets… did a terrible job of taking care of the ball. [Having] 28 turnovers is unacceptable.”

The second half began much the same as the first, when it took almost six minutes before the Huskies found the bottom of the net on a mid-range jumper from guard Courtney Shelton.

The central message after the blowout loss to Eastern Michigan was a lack of maturity.

“This team won two games and to be able to maintain that level of intensity and focus we haven’t proven we can do that yet,” Bennett said. “It takes mature teams to do that.”

Bennett said leadership and playing hard throughout the game contributes to the strength of mature teams. She found NIU’s squad to be missing both components, especially from standout guard Marke Freeman, who went 0-for-10 from the field with no points and four turnovers.

“She had a very poor game,” Bennett said of Freeman. “She had open looks, missed open people, defensively really struggled…We didn’t come ready today. That’s the bottom line.”

On the positive side for NIU, Davis earned her fifth career double-double pulling down 13 boards and 11 points to lead the team. Cassie Schrock carried the Eagles with 19 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals.

“She played hard,” Bennett said of Davis. “She was open a lot, and we missed her. She could have had more points.”