NIU women’s basketball is trying to get used to something new – having a target on its back.

“Every game now teams know how good we are,” said NIU head coach Carol Owens. “We’re learning how to be in this position.”

With this new challenge has come some growing pains, and that’s what the Huskies experienced Saturday, as they lost to Eastern Michigan 53-49.

NIU (13-12 overall, 8-4 MAC) went into halftime down by 12 points against EMU (7-17, 3-9). One reason the Huskies were put into that situation was because of turnovers.

The Eagles are forcing opponents to turn over the ball 21.1 times a game, good enough for third in the MAC. NIU fell victim to this attack, turning the ball over 21 times. The Eagles capitalized on this, scoring 22 points off turnovers.

Knowing that EMU wanted to attack in transition, Owens coached her team at the half to be more aggressive in the second period. Her players responded by opening up the second half with an 11-2 run to close the deficit to within three.

“Offensively we were just being more aggressive,” said NIU guard Marke Freeman. “Our aggression changed for the better.”

Freeman’s aggression forced a steal from EMU with about 12:20 remaining in the game. The guard dished the ball to NIU forward Becky Smith, who made a layup plus a foul shot to tie the game.

The Huskies and the Eagles fought over the lead, trading it three times, until EMU took the final lead with a layup from Eagles’ guard Cassie Schrock with 3:49 left to play.

Schrock led EMU in scoring with 15 points. The guard was also 7-8 from the free-throw line.

Free throws were the other difference in the game. The Eagles converted 12-17 from the charity strip, while the Huskies only made 7-13. In the final minutes of the game, NIU struggled to convert from the free-throw line as Freeman and NIU forward Aileen Rossouw missed shots.

“The point of a foul is to make the other team pay,” Freeman said. “When you don’t make your free throws, you don’t accomplish anything.”

The two Huskies led their team in scoring as Rossouw put up 13, along with 10 rebounds, and Freeman added another nine points. Overall, the NIU bench scored 29 of its 49 points.

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