It is one thing to take the opening tip in for a basket, but it’s another to not look back the rest of the game.

That is what happened in the women’s defeat of the Czech Republic Strakonice team 110-79 Thursday night.

The Huskies went up 8-0 before Strakonice even put points on the board and at the end of the first half the Huskies were up 56-33.

The star for Huskies was none other than All-America candidate E.C. Hill. In just 21 minutes of play Hill scored a game high 27 points. She made nine-of-13 from the field including three-of-three from three-point land.

“E.C. came out and quarterbacked this team great tonight,” commented head coach Jane Albright-Dieterle. “She is at the level we want her to be at. She’s ready and confident and it’s her time to lead the team.”

Angela Lockett played well in her first game back. She finished the game with 16 points in just 19.5 minutes of play.

“I’ve forgotten she was injured,” commented Albright-Dieterle. “She came out and scored the first bucket six seconds into the game. She played strong both mentally and physically.”

The most outstanding statistic however is the number of fouls, 66 for the game. Strakonice committed 41 fouls and had six of their 11 players foul out. The Huskies went to the charity stipe 53 times and connected on 68 percent of them, making 36.

“In a way it was frustrating because every time there was a foul it would stop the momentum,” said Albright-Dieterle. “We fouled too many times also.”

It’s also a tribute to having so much penetration. We did a great job of attacking the basket,” she added.

The Huskies attacked the basket often enough to have six players reach double digits in points. Charmonique Stallworth contributed 15 points, Chelsea Schwankle and Tracy Williams each finished with 12 and Dana Lau added ten.

“Charmonique played a great game. She almost had a double- double with her nine rebounds,” said Albright-Dieterle. “I think she’ll get a triple-double real soon.

The Huskies’ biggest lead came early in the second half when Schwankl sank a 13-footer off a feed from Jenny Sullivan to cap a 6-0 run. The lead never dropped below 19 points in the second half.

“We had great second and third efforts,” commented Albright-Dieterle. “We made a strong statement of who we want to be. There was no selfishness out there.”

The Strakonice team was amazed by the way NIU played.

“From the three teams we’ve played (Northern Iowa, Western Illinois and NIU), this team was the best,” said Czech head coach Janda Milan.

They have very good players including number 23 (Hill), and it’s a great experience just for us to play here. They players are so much faster here.”

Albright-Dieterle was pleased with the tempo of the game.

“We didn’t show a lot of our quick hitters,” she said. “We played basic inside and out basketball.

“All our players did an exceptional job at doing what I asked them to. We had a lot of players fill a lot of different roles.”

If anything, the game did show what needs to be improved on according to Albright-Dieterle.

“One thing we have to work on defensively is our fouls. We fouled too many times,” she said. “We also didn’t defend the three and didn’t take as many three-point shots as we could have.”