The MAC’s success against the Big Ten that took place in college football didn’t translate to women’s hoops Sunday, as the NIU women’s basketball team fell to the Wisconsin Badgers, 70-64.

With the loss, NIU falls to 3-5 on the season, while Wisconsin was able to extend its winning streak to eight games, improving to 8-1 overall, and 6-0 at home.

The Badgers were able to take control in the first half, but the Huskies battled back to make it a game in the second half.

Wisconsin built its lead with a 12-0 run with five minutes left to play in the first half, and led 41-24 at the break.

“The first half we just gave up too many points,” said NIU head coach Carol Owens. “I thought Wisconsin did a great job of keeping us off the board in the first half.”

The Huskies were able to catch up in the second half, though, as they were fueled by 20 second-half rebounds, nine of which were offensive. NIU had only eight total rebounds in the first half.

“I was really disappointed in our offensive rebounding productivity [in the first half],” Owens said. “I thought that once we started being aggressive, we needed to get offensive rebounds in order to have a chance to stay in this game, and I thought we did that.”

The increased productivity on the boards helped the Huskies close the gap in the second half.

Down 56-36 with 13:03 to play in the game, the Huskies were able to cut into the Badgers’ lead with runs of 7-2 and 11-1. They eventually cut Wisconsin’s lead to eight with just over three minutes left to play.

The Huskies’ late push was keyed by redshirt sophomore Marke Freeman, who led the Huskies with 15 points and five assists, and was one of four Huskies in double figures. Redshirt senior Aileen Rossouw also scored a season-high 11 points.

Although the Huskies won in terms of turnovers, 18-21, Wisconsin did a better job of capitalizing on its opportunities, scoring 22 points off turnovers.

The Huskies’ defense was unable to stifle the offensive prowess of Wisconsin all afternoon, allowing the Badgers to shoot 73.9 percent in the first half and 61.9 percent overall.

The Badgers were led by sophomore guard Alyssa Karel, who scored a game and career-high 25 points, going 11-14 from the field.

“Well, as a coach I learned my lesson to not put too much emphasis on just one person,” Owens said. “We talked about not giving her open looks. When you have a player like Karel that is hard to defend. She’s a three-point shooter, she can drive, and we gave her different looks, and she was hard to defend, but I think that’s good for our team to learn.”