All good things must come to an end sometime, and for the NIU women's basketball team, that end came too soon.

After pulling off the upset against Kent State on Tuesday, the Huskies (No 3 seed in the MAC West) didn't have enough left in their bag of tricks to pull off the improbable upset against Ball State (No 1 seed in the MAC West) Friday as they fell 83-72 to the Cardinals in the semi-finals of the MAC Tournament at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

"We're disappointed in the loss, we wanted to advance to the championship game," NIU head coach Carol Owens said. "I thought we played hard. I thought our seniors

did a great job this year with their leadership. I'm really proud of them."

After falling behind 41-32 at half, NIU was unable to go on a run to get the game close and Ball State didn't give NIU any help by going 17-17 from the foul line.

"I felt like we were a couple baskets away from making this a game," Owens said. "We got ourselves in a hole in the first half. We had a hard time stopping them defensively."

Ball State's spread offense proved to be difficult for NIU to defend. The Cardinals saw five players hitdouble digit scoring with Audrey McDonald leading the way with 18 points. Porchia Green scored 16 to follow, while Julie DeMuth and Lisa Rusche chipped in with 12

each. Kelsey Corbin rounded out the five with 11 points.

The Huskies got solid performances out of underclassmen Kylie York and Beckie Smith. The freshman York, scored 11 points while hitting three three-pointers, while the sophomore Smith, scored a career-high 15 points on 7-8 shooting from the field.

She also recorded a career high in rebounds pulling down 10 boards. NIU guard Stephanie Raymond led all scorers with 23 points. She also had a game-high eight assists.