Continuing its holiday road trip, the NIU women’s basketball team went to Bozeman, Mont., for the Gran Tree Inn Classic.

The Huskies (2-2) left the tournament with a loss to Montana State in the opener, but rebounded for a win in the consolation game over San Jose State.

In the first-round game, the Huskies fell behind 10-0 and couldn’t recover, despite five players scoring in double digits, eventually falling 71-61.

“I didn’t feel that we were very focused tonight,” coach Carol Hammerle said. “We weren’t ready to play. I’m extremely disappointed in our effort.”

NIU made good on just nine-of-26 shots in the first half but shot 52 percent in the second half.

The Huskies were plagued by 21 turnovers and were out-rebounded by the Bobcats 40-32.

Hammerle did, however, get a good look at three players who saw limited action last season, but have gotten off to quick starts this year.

Stephanie Smith tallied 11 points after a career-high 20 points against Arizona State on Monday.

After averaging just 4.4 points per game last season, Smith has scored 31 in her last two games.

“Stephanie is doing a nice job for us right now,” Hammerle said. “She works hard on defense and she’s what we need offensively. I’m pleased with her performance, and she’s definitely developing confidence from these early games.”

Alyssa Verdegan and Rachel Sillar also contributed for the Huskies off the bench.

“Once our starters saw what Alyssa and Rachel were capable of doing, they worked harder in the second half,” Hammerle said. “They saw those two work their butts off and it was clearly the difference. Rachel and Alyssa showed [the comeback] could be done, then the rest of the players followed their lead.”

Kristan Knake scored 10 points for the Huskies, passing the 1,000 point plateau for her career. The Marengo native became the 19th player in school history to pass 1,000 career points.

In the consolation game, the Huskies got a lift from Jennifer Youngblood and rallied from a second half deficit to defeat San Jose State, 78-72.

Youngblood scored all 17 of her points in the second half, including a bucket at the 11:21 mark of the second half to put the Huskies ahead for good, bringing the Huskies back from a nine-point deficit.

“In the first half, we didn’t try to get the ball inside to Jennifer,” Hammerle said. “When we did it in the second half, she took care of business. It was that simple.”

While Youngblood carried the Huskies in the second half, it was Smith who got the Huskies off to a strong start.

Smith scored 10 of the team’s first 12 points as the Huskies jumped out to a 12-4 lead.

“We were up 10 points at one point, and then we didn’t stay intense,” Hammerle said. “We ended up complacent on offense and the end result was turnovers and mistakes. We need to be more disciplined, more poised and more patient.”