Stephanie Smith and Lindsay Secrest brought the NIU women’s basketball team back from the dead Saturday afternoon.

Consecutive turnovers allowed Ohio to build an 82-78 lead with 43 seconds remaining in the first overtime, and it seemed the Bobcats had seized the momentum. Then Smith and Secrest went to work.

Smith hit a 3 to draw the Huskies within one. Ohio guard Cathy Szall sank 2 free throws to take a 1-point lead. Secrest tossed in another 3 to force a second extra session. The contest eventually went into two overtimes, during which NIU outscored Ohio 32-22 for a 102-92 triumph.

“We knew right there we were not going to roll over and die,” Smith said. “Then we became more aggressive on the defensive end.”

Smith and Secrest’s efforts characterized an all-out team performance for NIU, which saw senior Mickey Johnson pump in a season-best 28 points and Jen Youngblood a career-high 24 points.

While Johnson and Youngblood combined to shoot 24 of 35 from the field, sophomore Kim Boeding sparked the Huskies in OT. Boeding hit 11 of 11 free throws in the game, including 8 consecutive foul shots in the second OT, to seal the win. The 6-foot forward finished with 15 points and 8 rebounds including three crucial rebounds in the second OT.

After struggling defensively in the first half, the Huskies heightened the defense in the second. Ohio touched the Huskies, shooting 58 percent in the first half, but only 35 percent (6-of-17) in the second half.

“At halftime we said to ourselves, ‘We’re not going to lose this game,'” Smith said. “We picked each other up and stayed positive. We were hungry for it and had the heart for it.”

NIU (11-13, 7-4 Mid-American Conference West) trailed the Bobcats 47-37 in the second half. Then sophomore guard Kristan Knake hit a 3-point basket, and a Huskies’ stop led to Secrest nailing another 3-pointer and a 47-43 deficit.

“Those threes were huge,” Secrest said. “We just kept chipping away at the score a little and it put us over the top.”

NIU head coach Carol Hammerle also noted the importance of that sequence.

“We were down 7 or 9 for so long,” she said. “But then we got those two three-pointers and I could see our players get excited. Once we got within four we knew we could win this game.”