The NIU women’s basketball team didn’t get off to the start it expected to in its first action of the regular season.

The Huskies fell to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis 72-58 Friday night, as they kicked off the regular season at the Convocation Center.

“I thought IUPUI outplayed us. They got to every loose ball,” said NIU head coach Carol Owens. “We’re disappointed in the loss. We expected to be 1-0, but we’ve got to work harder to get there.”

The Jaguars (1-0) were in control for much of the game, as the Huskies were plagued by turnovers all night.

“We didn’t reach our goal in terms of turnovers,” Owens said. “We didn’t make the right decisions at times. Our turnovers are going to decrease. I’m more concerned with getting to the loose balls.”

Carrying NIU (0-1) on the offensive side of the ball was sophomore center Ebony Ellis, who tallied a double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds, including seven offensive boards. Redshirt sophomore Marke Freeman lead the Huskies in scoring with 16.

“I was pleased with how Ebony played, especially versus their post,” Owens said. “She had a double-double, and she can do that every night.”

NIU struggled for much of the first half, shooting only .379 and making only one of seven 3-pointers.

The Huskies finally made their push late, as a Freeman 3-pointer cut the lead to eight at the 7:00 minute mark in the second half. Ellis was key in a late-game run that saw NIU cut the lead to one, until the Jaguars were able to capitalize on two quick turnovers.

“I had to remind them the clock was who we were playing against and we had to regain our poise and finish the game,” said IUPUI head coach Shann Hart. “We didn’t do a good job containing Ellis. The big difference was guard play. [Kylie] York and [Jessie] Wilcox didn’t get off to good starts and we wanted to limit their touches.”

IUPUI was able to overcome some first half free-throw struggles to sink the Huskies, paced by senior forward Jernisha Cann, who hit 11 free throws and scored 23 total points.

“We gave it all we had and without the mistakes in the last two minutes, that would have changed the momentum,” Freeman said. “We’ll take this game into the next one and learn from it.”