For the first time this season, the NIU women’s basketball went into overtime and lost.

The Huskies had won three straight overtime games this year prior to the 76-70 loss to Bowling Green State University on Saturday.

Although the game went into an extra period, it didn’t have to.

“We almost laughed after the game; we’re not a very good pressing team.” BGSU head coach Curt Miller said. “But just when we needed to force a few deflections and few mistakes we did.

That’s more of a will than anything strategic. Honestly, we had to be a little lucky down the stretch to win this game.”

In the last 1:10 of the second half, the Huskies (10-10 overall, 5-2 MAC) turned the ball over three times. During that time period the Falcons (18-2, 7-0) scored five points and took a one-point lead.

NIU tied the game on the first of two free-throws by forward Mauvolyene Adams. Adams missed the second free-throw, which would have won the game for NIU.

Before the overtime period, an inadvertent whistle caused confusion on the court.

With 10 seconds left in the game, NIU and BGSU fought over the ball. Miller shouted at the referees to control the scrum. The refs thought Miller was yelling for a timeout.

The Falcons, however, did not have a timeout. Therefore, according to the rules, if BGSU was granted a timeout it would receive a technical foul. This would then send NIU to the free-throw line.

Both Miller and NIU head coach Carol Owens shouted at the refs as they discussed what happened. At the end of the conference, the officials gave the Falcons the ball to inbound, as they had the possession arrow – deciding no time out had been called.

“We were all kind of confused,” said NIU guard Jessie Wilcox. “It’s up to the refs, they got together and huddled over it. You can’t go back in time; you can’t change the call.”

Wilcox scored a team-high 19 points in the loss. She was one of four Huskies who reached double-digits. Adams, center Ebony Ellis, and guard Marke Freeman put up 15, 14, and 10 points for NIU.

Yet this quad of players only scored seven points in overtime.

NIU struggled in overtime for the first time this season. A large reason for this was because the Huskies played from behind for the first time in the extra frame.

The Falcons started overtime with a three-pointer by guard Lindsey Goldsberry. After that bucket, the Huskies were never able to recover.

“It was very important because then we had to play catch up,” NIU head coach Carol Owens said of the basket. “We had to play catch up throughout.”

BGSU was lead by guard Tracy Pontius and her 31 points. The Morton native scored five points in the overtime period.