Within a span of 10 minutes, the NIU women’s basketball team reversed its fortunes and led the Huskies to an 81-66 victory. It was Senior Night, but a pair of non-seniors led the comeback in second half.

After trailing Central Michigan by 16 early and seven at halftime, the Huskies had enough. This was not how they wanted their seniors to end their careers at the Convocation Center.

“Our kids, they were angry. They were angry for how we started; they were angry at halftime,” said NIU head coach Carol Owens. “There’s not a whole lot that needed to be said in terms of inspiring and motivating them. They knew what they needed to do.”

Junior guard Kylie York and redshirt sophomore Marke Freeman exemplified NIU’s renewed attitude. Freeman turned the Huskies into a team that was pushing the ball and being aggressive, following a first half of wasted possessions.

This opened up opportunities in transition for York, who scored 15 in the second half and 21 total, tying a career-high with seven treys.

It was Freeman who was the facilitator, though, as the guard found herself weaving through defenders for much of the second half, ending the game with 15 points and four assists, only turning the ball over twice.

“That’s my job coming into the game, to play transition,” Freeman said. “We found a weakness in their defense and took it around, took advantage of it.”

The two guards helped NIU close the gap against the Chippewas, until sophomore Ebony Ellis scored four straight points to give NIU a three-point lead with 9:25 remaining.

It was at this point that redshirt senior Shari’ Welton came into the game, and along with York, made sure that the Huskies shut the door on CMU. Welton had 13 points and four rebounds in the second half, many being timely shots.

York did her part, hitting four 3-pointers in the final 10 minutes to make sure CMU didn’t gain back any ground.

“It went in the second half, I don’t know what to say. It finally clicked,” York said.

The Fishers, Ind. native rarely had any defenders near her when lining up from behind the arc, at times sinking NBA-range treys.

“How in heaven’s name we could leave Kylie York open is beyond me,” said CMU head coach Sue Guevara. “I told our players ‘You can lose momentum, but you cannot lose confidence.’ I thought when we lost momentum, we lost confidence and we panicked. Northern Illinois went on a run, and they fed the fire, and the fire was Kylie York.”

It was an exciting finish to the game, as well as the end of an exciting season for NIU women’s basketball at the Convocation Center. After the game, Owens went straight to the announcer’s table, grabbing the mic to thank the fans for their support as the team ran up to thank the NIU Pep Band.

Owens reminded fans that there is still a lot of basketball to be played, as a final proclamation of “Go Huskies” gave the impression that, with this win, NIU gained back a lot of the swagger they had been playing with.

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