University of Wisconsin-Green Bay won the war of the boards Friday night—it had 60 rebounds compared to NIU’s 42—and beat NIU 62-57 at the Phoenix Sports Center in front of 725 fans.

The game was for sole possession of first place in the North Star Conference. The Lady Phoenix improved to 14-5, 6-0, while the Huskies dropped to 10-7, 5-1.

“It was a real hard-fought game by both teams,” NIU’s women’s basketball head coach Jane Albright-Dieterle said. “They were just much better on the boards (Friday). That was definitely the difference. You can’t win if you don’t do more on rebounds than that.”

NIU took a 45-39 lead at 10:44 of the second half after a short jumper by Angela Lockett, who had 18 points and a team-high eight rebounds. UW-GB then scored 19 points in 7:35 to take a 58-51 lead.

After UW-GB’s Dawn Schirmacher (11 points, nine rebounds) missed two free throws with 35 seconds left, game-high scorer Cindy Conner (19 points) hit a three-pointer, narrowing the score to 60-57 with 17 seconds to play.

NIU then fouled Sandra Baerwald (16 points, 10 rebounds), who missed the front end of a one-and-one shot. But Kimberly Wood (11 points, 11 rebounds) grabbed the rebound and scored the game’s final two points.

“It was pretty much a defensive effort on both sides, which is really reflected in the field-goal shooting,” Albright-Dieterle said. UW-GB shot 36 percent from the floor, NIU shot 34 percent.

“Right now, I think they’re a better team than us,” Albright-Dieterle said. “We’ll just have to see next time.”

Two of the Huskies last three regular-season conference losses have come to UW-GB. The other came against the Huskies’ next opponent, ex-conference member DePaul, whom they meet Tuesday (7 p.m.) at Chick Evans Field House.