It’s easy to lose your keys, but losing a 6-foot-2-inch forward – well that’s a bit harder.

Yet that’s exactly what happened to Miami (Ohio) as it allowed NIU’s Aileen Rossouw to score a career-high 18 points in the Huskies 80-66 victory.

“We couldn’t find her,” said Miami (Ohio) head coach Maria Fantanarosa. “She was just finishing.”

The senior wasn’t able to finish the whole night, however. Rossouw struggled in the first half, going 1-4 in 10 minutes.

But that began to change with 13:17 remaining in the second half.

Ball in hand, the forward drove into the lane. Presenting a mighty presence, Rossouw broke through the RedHawks (13-10 overall, 5-5 MAC) defense for a lay-up.

During the next three minutes, the forward was NIU’s (12-11, 7-3) only scorer. The Huskie went 5-6 from the floor, scoring 10 points from the field. Rossouw added another point from the foul line and grabbed two rebounds during the same stretch.

“Aileen [Rossouw] came off the bench and gave us a spark in that area,” said NIU head coach Carol Owens. “She took high percentage shots.”

Rossouw was able to take high percentage shots for multiple reasons. NIU executed its offense to a level which it has yet to do in many games this season. The Huskies were proficient on driving into the lane, only to dish the ball out to an open shooter.

Overall, NIU committed only six turnovers to 17 assists. Prior to facing the RedHawks, the Huskies lowest amount of turnovers in a game was 15.

Injury was another reason for Rossouw’s success. In the beginning of the second half, Miami (Ohio) lost starting guard Maggie Boyer and a key bench player in forward Ashleigh Brown to leg injuries.

These injuries forced the RedHawks to try and adjust their defensive strategy, which Rossouw was able to take advantage of.

“We in the second half were trying to change up our zone and man [defense] because of our lack of experience at that point,” Fantanarosa said. “[But] I’m not sure if we had all our players healthy we would have be able to stop her because she’s a solid player.”

Fantanarosa also pointed to a sense of urgency as a reason Rossouw was able to dominate against her team. With only seven more college games guaranteed, the opposing coach thinks that realization helped produce the career night.

But Rossouw didn’t seem to show any sense of urgency. Instead she explained her career game in a more calm and relaxed manner.

“Yeah, I was just trying to attack and find the gap,” the senior said.

Owens had to remind her leading scorer she did one more thing than she explained – she was able to finish.