It didn’t take long for the women’s basketball team to score its first basket of the game on Saturday.

In fact, it didn’t take any time at all.

Jennifer Youngblood made a free throw after the visiting Gee’s Clippers were assessed a technical foul before the game started for not having all their players written down in the score book.

The Huskies trailed only 45 seconds the rest of the game as they cruised to a 99-50 win.

“I think we’re ready for the season to start,” coach Carol Hammerle said. “We still have a lot of things to work on, but it was nice to see this team adjust to the competition. The team we played has a lot of good athletes, but our teamwork was impressive and we took care of business defensively. We were able to use the defense and turn that into points.”

The Huskies got off to a strong start behind the play of post players Kim Boeding and Youngblood.

The two combined for 28 of the team’s 55 first-half points.

Boeding, who played the perimeter in her first two seasons, has made a seamless transition to the post this year. In the Huskies’ exhibition opener, Boeding had 22 points and eight rebounds and followed that up with 21 points and 12 rebounds Saturday.

“I’m feeling comfortable in the post,” said Boeding. “When coach Hammerle moved me there, I took it as a challenge. But I had always played the post in high school, so I’m just doing what I can.”

For the game, the Huskies put five players in double figures as sophomore Alyssa Verdegan scored 17, Lindsay Secrest had 14, senior Kristan Knake scored 13 and Youngblood scored 11 to go along with 13 rebounds.

“I really liked our balance, both in terms of scoring and defensively,” Hammerle said. “I have a lot of options with this team, and I feel like we’re in a position to do a lot of good things. We were able to get everybody in and try some different combinations today.”

NIU shot 65 percent from the floor while the Clippers, named for a chain of hair salons in Wisconsin, shot 35 percent.

The Huskies also had a distinct advantage on the boards.

The home team grabbed 46 total rebounds compared to 16 for the Clippers.

“We shot the ball extremely well so they didn’t have many chances for defensive rebounds,” Hammerle said. “But we were able to control them and limit their second-chance opportunities.”

The Huskies open their regular season on Friday, Nov. 22, at 7:05 p.m. against Wisconsin at the Convocation Center.