Joi Scott provided the first-half offense while Jennifer Youngblood led in the second half for the NIU women’s basketball team in a 60-51 win over Central Michigan on Saturday at the Convocation Center.

Scott and Youngblood finished with 18 points each.

Scott scored 12 of the Huskies’ 18 points before halftime. Central Michigan held a 20-18 lead at intermission. Youngblood played all 20 minutes in the second half, where she scored all of her points of the night.

“I almost felt like Joi [Scott] and Jen [Youngblood] reversed roles,” NIU coach Carol Hammerle said. “Joi really carried us on her back in the first half. In the second, it was Jen.”

Scott and Youngblood also led the Huskies in rebounds with nine and eight, respectively.

“To be honest, I think we’re unstoppable,” Hammerle said of Youngblood and Scott. “A lot of teams try to take that away from us. Joi [Scott] and Jen [Youngblood] score some good points, but we just give them the ball.”

Youngblood now has 1,417 career points and has passed current NIU assistant coach Charmonique Stallworth (1992-’96) for 10th on NIU’s all-time scoring list in Saturday’s game. Youngblood’s second-half scoring helped NIU rally for the lead.

“Our intensity really picked up, and that helped us get going,” Youngblood said.

NIU committed 13 turnovers in the first half but also held Central Michigan to 29.6 percent from the field. Hammerle attributed the second-half improvement to the senior leadership of Youngblood, Monique Davis and Lindsay Secrest.

“I don’t know why we started out the way we did,” Hammerle said, “but this team went out there and executed. We did things defensively, and the press second half was extremely effective, allowing us to get easy turnovers and steals.”

NIU was without freshman guard Stephanie Raymond for most of the game. Raymond fell after a charge from Central Michigan’s Casey Manning with 11:32 remaining in the first half. Raymond was helped to the locker room before being taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital.

Davis stepped in for Raymond as point guard, scoring 11 points.