Costly turnovers have been the story of the young season for the NIU women’s basketball team. NIU started an eight-game road trip with a pair of defeats from in-state rivals.

Tuesday, Western Illinois (2-0) extended its home-court winning streak to 41 games with a 50-34 win. And Saturday, Illinois State improved to 3-0 with a 60-50 victory.

In the three-game losing streak, NIU (1-3) has posted 80 turnovers. On Tuesday, NIU was its own worst enemy, as 10 turnovers in the first 12 minutes translated into a 16-5 deficit.

“We had two quick turnovers and suddenly we were at a standstill. Eventually, Western got a couple rebound put-backs and it was downhill from there,” NIU head coach Carol Owens said. “We got into some foul trouble and once again, there were simply far too many turnovers.”

NIU rallied from a poor start to trail by just six points at half time, and pulled even for the last time at 28-28 on a pair of free throws by Nikita Odom. WIU dominated the remainder of the game, NIU was out-scored 22-6 in the final 15:10. Zane Teilane had a double-double for WIU, with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Stephanie Raymond was the lone Huskie in double figures with 11 points. Junior center Kristin Wiener led NIU with nine rebounds, and was recognized by her coach for her work ethic.

“I thought Kristin did a good job on defense and has been doing a lot of things that don’t show up in the box score,” Owens added. “We continue to work hard and do a lot of good things. We just need to cut down our turnovers, or even cut them in half, and continue to work on execution.”

Saturday, ISU capitalized on a turnover laden start by NIU and grabbed an early 14-2 lead. NIU was forced to play catch up all game, and almost did when trailing 24-23 at the half.

ISU shot 50 percent from the floor, and used a three-basket scoring spurt from Nicolle Lewis (nine points) to extend the lead to 10 at 43-33. ISU received balanced scoring from Amber Shelton (10 points), Holly Hallstrom (15 points, 10 rebounds), and Kristi Cirone (game high 17 points).

“I’m disappointed in the loss because once again we had our opportunities and failed to capitalize,” Owens said. “We executed our offense better tonight and only had 21 turnovers, which is a low for us so far this year, but obviously we have more work to do in that respect.”

Raymond again lead NIU in scoring with 10 points, and Odom scored eight and pulled down 11 rebounds.