You live by the sword, you die by the sword.

For the NIU women’s basketball team, this adage refers to its three-point shooting.

Last Sunday against Buffalo, the Huskies connected on 10-of-19 thr ee-point field goals which carried them to a 76-64 win.

In Thursday’s 70-64 loss to Miami (Ohio), NIU finished 3-of-18 from the land of three.

“I wish I knew the answers to [our three-point shooting],” NIU coach Carol Hammerle said. “I think a lot of times it’s your first shot. If your first shot drops, you have that confidence and you get in your rhythm. That didn’t happen.”

NIU finished the first half down by four points after shooting 0-of-7 from the outside.

The Huskies would not let the poor first-half shooting stop them. They tossed up 11 more in the second half.

“Even though we were missing, we keep shooting,” NIU junior guard Kristan Knake said. “Our coaches always say that even if you miss your first shot, don’t quit shooting.

The Huskie’s three-point shooting is getting notice from coaches around the MAC. They rank third in the conference in three-point shooting at 38.4 percent from beyond the arc entering Thursday’s game.

“In our scouting report, we definitely focused knowing that most of their guards are very good off-the-pass three-point shooters,” Miami coach Maria Fantanarosa said. “We know all of them are great threats from three … We wanted to make sure we were going to close out and make them put their dribble down if they were going to get a shot off.”

The Huskies do find themselves persistent with the three, trying not to let how they’re shooting affect how they run the offense.

“We don’t try to force the ball inside more,” Knake said. “When we’re not hitting from the outside, it’s more important to execute better on the offensive end.”