Women’s hoops falls at Northern Iowa

By Jarrod Rice

With so many underclassmen on its roster, the NIU women’s basketball team should have felt right at home in the high school atmosphere.

But that was not the case, as the Huskies fell 74-60 at Northern Iowa on Friday.

The game was played at UNI’s West Gym that NIU coach Carol Hammerle called a “high school gym.”

“I don’t think that there are a lot of teams that are as physical as they are,” Hammerle said. “I thought we handled it pretty well, but we just couldn’t weather the storm.”

NIU (1-2) saw its only lead of the game after senior Rachel Sillar drove through the lane for a layup just four seconds in.

Senior guard Emily Berry answered with a pair of three-pointers to put UNI (3-1) up for good.

Sophomore guard Stephanie Raymond scored a career-high 24 points on 8-of-19 shooting to pace the Huskies but also had six turnovers to go with just one assist.

“[Raymond] was really trying to make things happen when we got down,” Hammerle said. “Usually when we start pressing to score we don’t make good decisions.”

The Huskies tied the game at 32 after a pair of free throws by Sillar, 27 seconds into the second half, but once again were answered by a Berry three-pointer to end the run.

Raymond scored nine points in the final two minutes to try to bring the Huskies back, but UNI converted 11 straight free throws to end the game.

“I don’t think the final score indicated how close the game really was,” Hammerle said. “I’m obviously disappointed in the loss, but I think we learned a great deal about ourselves and we can build from that.”