Shaking off a year’s worth of rust on the hard court can take a bit of time.

Although she still has things to work on, redshirt junior guard Marke Freeman made progress as she helped lead the NIU women’s basketball team past the St. Xavier Cougars Monday night, 73-67, in its lone exhibition match-up of the 2008-09 campaign.

Freeman, who sat out last year after transferring to NIU from Florida A&M University, came out with intensity on both sides of the ball in her Huskie debut, scoring 19 points on a .538 shooting performance.

“I’m very excited,” Freeman said. “Sitting out a year, it’s more of a mental thing than anything else, but I’m very excited to be back.”

The Springfield native was able to score in a variety of ways, rolling off screens and getting good penetration toward the bucket, as well as showing off her long-distance stroke, hitting two of three 3-point attempts.

“She’s hard to defend,” said NIU head coach Carol Owens. “She’s so quick and she can take you off the dribble, but she’s got 3-point range.”

The 5-foot-5 point guard was quick to point out that her strong offensive performance was the result of a greater team effort.

“Our post players did a really good job,” Freeman said. “They were setting really good screens, so that left us pretty open off the screen and opened up a lot of other opportunities to get to the basket.”

Freeman was also effective on the defensive end, applying suffocating pressure and totaling four steals throughout the night. Her intensity on the defensive side of the ball helped increase the energy level of her teammates on the floor, as well.

“I think from a point guard’s perspective, the intensity that comes from her is going to go down to everybody else,” Owens said. “That’s what she can bring; she can be a pretty special player for us.”

Freeman struggled with turnovers for much of the night. The junior tallied seven against just three assists, but this is more a by-product of her getting back up to game speed after sitting out a year.

“It feels good to get the first-game jitters out,” Freeman said. “That will definitely be something we work on in practice. You’ve got to work on it consistently, and eventually, hopefully it will get better.”