The week before Thanksgiving, the NIU women’s basketball team was already in a giving mood.

The Huskies, hindered by 26 turnovers, fell to Chicago State 64-57 on the road.

NIU was better than Chicago State in most statistical categories, including rebounds, where the Huskies out-rebounded them 46-28, but the turnovers were too much to overcome.

“It was a disappointing loss,” NIU coach Carol Owens said. “A lot of our turnovers in the first half came in the post and that was tough.”

Trailing most of the game, NIU pulled within six points with 10 minutes left in the game, but gave up a key offensive rebound that stopped it from getting closer.

One of the reasons the Huskies got that close is because of the play by freshman Charmaine Bell.

Bell scored all nine of her points in the second half on 3-4 shooting from the field. She also added five rebounds and four assists.

“She was a bright spot for us,” Owens said. “She came in in the second half and gave us a chance.”

Guard Kylie York led NIU with 12 points and nine rebounds while connecting on three 3-pointers.

For the game, the Huskies were 10-21 from beyond the arc.

Junior guard Jessie Wilcox joined York as the only other Huskie in double digits with 11 points.

Chicago State was led by Laureen Pierson who had 15 points while shooting a perfect 6-6 from the field.

Guard Jasmin Dixon also filled up the stat sheet for Chicago State, scoring 14 points while adding nine rebounds and 5 steals.

“Chicago State played well,” Owens said. “We didn’t have our best game on the road with us. We want to see our post players scoring double digits and that didn‘t happen tonight.”

Another thing NIU didn’t do that it has in the past is get to the foul line.

For the game the Huskies were 7-9 from the charity stripe, while Chicago State was 20-29.