Despite the fact that it was Senior Night inside the Convocation Center on Saturday, it was a pair of juniors who provided the spark that led NIU to an 81-66 victory over Central Michigan.

Guards Marke Freeman and Kylie York helped ignite a comeback in a game that saw the Huskies down 16 early in the first half. York posted 21 for the game, 15 in the second half off 5-6 shooting from behind the arc. She was 7-10 for the game.

“This is the second time we’ve been bested,” said CMU head coach Sue Guevara. “We were bested by Northern Illinois for the second time. There’s a reason that they are the No. 1 team in the MAC in rebounding and just saw it.”

Freeman finished with 15 points and four assists, with nine points in second half.

Britni Houghton put the Chippewas on the board first, and after going up 3-2, CMU went on an 11-0 run until senior Aileen Rossouw made a pair of free throws.

NIU played flat and would go down by as much as 24-8 just nine minutes into the game, often falling victim to CMU’s full-court press, which trapped the Huskies moving up the court.

“We’ve been seeing it all along, but I thought we just waited for things to happen and just settled for passing it back and forth into their zone,” said NIU head coach Carol Owens. “When we started to attack their zone and their press, they didn’t have any answer for it.”

Rossouw, who was recruited from Auburn by then-assistant coach Guevara, made sure her Senior Night wasn’t a blowout loss as she helped lead the charge and reduced the deficit to 37-30 at the break. She led the Huskies with 10 points and eight rebounds in the half and finished with her third straight double-double.

The second half introduced the crowd to an entirely different NIU team. Led by Freeman and senior Shari’ Welton, NIU tied the game 44-44 and took its first lead of the game on an Ebony Ellis lay-up with 10 to go at 51-50.

After CMU battled to make the score 53-52, the Huskies went on a run of their own. The 9-0 run gave them a 62-52 lead.

Houghton and Shonda Long ended the run with four straight points, but York hit a 3-pointer with 5:45 left to play that erupted the crowd of 2,558 and ended any talks of a comeback for the Chippewas.

“I was just excited for our team,” York said. “I was excited [Marke] hit me on that. She gets in the lane and can find the open person anytime.”

Welton would add four more points down the stretch and scored a season-high 16 points, along with seven rebounds in her final home game as a Huskie.

Houghton led CMU with 24 points and eight rebounds. Her last visit to the Convocation Center on Jan. 15, 2008 resulted in 20 points and eight boards in an 87-60 loss.

NIU defeated the Chippewas earlier this season at Rose Arena 75-70 on Jan. 7. Saturday’s victory marked the third straight for the Huskies over CMU and improved the team’s record to 15-4 against CMU since the 1999-2000 season.