Sophomore Kim Boeding scored 8 points and pulled down 4 rebounds in the Huskies loss.

On a Saturday night that had all the makings of a perfect evening for the NIU women’s basketball team, it suffered one of its toughest losses against Eastern Michigan.

The Huskies entered the game riding a four-game winning streak, playing against a team they had already beaten. Before the game, senior center Mickey Johnson received the honorary game ball from last Saturday’s matchup with Central Michigan, when she scored her 1,000th career point.

Legendary NIU player E.C. Hill, a member of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, watched from the Huskie bench. If that wasn’t enough, a season-high crowd of 1,323 fans filled the Chick Evans Field House bleachers.

But Eastern Michigan used a spread offense to frustrate NIU, and held off a late Huskie rally for a 57-50 victory. The Eagles’ stifling defense kept NIU leading scorers Johnson and Kristan Knake from getting good looks at the basket. Each managed only 7 shot attempts.

“This is probably up there with one of our most frustrating losses,” NIU coach Carol Hammerle said.

The Huskies (10-12 overall, 6-3 Mid-American Conference West) showed promising signs early, hitting four of their first five shots. Fueled by three straight buckets from freshman forward Jen Youngblood, NIU grabbed an 8-0 lead.

But then the momentum swung the other way. With NIU holding an 11-6 lead, the Eagles (12-8, 5-4 MAC) were sparked by a three and a lay-up from senior guard Kristy Maska, then went on a 10-0 run.

Mistakes also played a role, as the Huskies received numerous traveling violations and committed 20 turnovers — 11 in the first half.

“It was like everything was coming real easy to us,” Hammerle said of the 8-0 lead. “And because it was so easy, we made poor decisions. We passed the ball where we shouldn’t have, and it just snowballed from there.”

After drawing iron on her first four three-point attempts, Maska, who scored a game-high 18 points, started taking the ball to the basket and caught NIU by surprise. For the game, the Eagles layed in 26 points in the paint.

“They knew that I like to shoot the three,” Maska said. “I don’t think they expect me to drive, so I wanted to take them as long as they kept giving it to me.”

Eastern Michigan extended its lead to as much as 11 points. The Huskies got no closer than four.

“They wanted the game a whole lot more than we did,” Hammerle said. “They totally outhustled us. They came ready to play, and we came out very soft tonight.”

Youngblood led NIU with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Johnson added 11.