Lindsay Secrest and company had themselves set for a monumental night in Wednesday’s women’s basketball matchup after completion of the first half, but it was ruined with a 75-67 loss to host Miami-Ohio.

The Huskies’ forward was in reach of topping the 1,000 career points mark, and NIU had a 14-point lead against the MAC East’s second place team.

Miami-Ohio (3-1 MAC, 9-6 overall) managed a comeback in the second half with a late 12-2 run. Miami’s Melanie Kozlowski sealed her team’s victory by making four free throws in the final 30 seconds.

Secrest led NIU (7-9, 2-3) with 18 points, shooting 7-of-14 from the field, and became the 21st Huskie to pass the 1,000-point mark. Secrest surpassed the milestone with a three-pointer, which has accounted for 51 percent of her total points. Current NIU senior Jennifer Youngblood has 1,287 career points.

“It was good to see Lindsay accomplish that tonight,” NIU coach Carol Hammerle said. “She played extremely hard tonight. She’s been doing a nice job for us.”

The Huskies had four players score in double digits in Secrest, Monique Davis, Youngblood and Joi Scott, but NIU couldn’t hold back the MAC’s highest-scoring offense in Miami, which averages 77.4 points per game.

“We were going inside and scoring in the first half, but then there was a momentum switch, and Miami started doing what we did to them to get back within six at halftime,” Hammerle said. “Then we didn’t make good decisions down the stretch and turned the ball over in key situations.”

The RedHawks shot 17-of-17 from the free-throw line, had 10 more rebounds and 11 fewer turnovers than NIU. Hammerle blames the Huskies’ setbacks to the loss of momentum in the second half

“The turnovers were big,” Hammerle said. “We’re so close, but we have to dig a little deeper. Miami did that tonight, and they took the game away from us.”