Women’s basketball: Despite A’Jah Davis’ double-double, Huskies fall in MAC tourney

The Northern Illinois University women’s basketball team built a 12-point halftime lead Wednesday in the Mid-American Conference tournament quarterfinals at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, but Ball State rallied in the fourth quarter to come away with a 60-54 win.

“You have to give a lot of credit to Ball State, especially in the second half,” NIU coach Lisa Carlsen said. “They did a great job of being disruptive on defense, and their full-court press turned us over and was the difference in the ballgame.”

Fifth-seeded Ball State will face top-seeded Toledo in the semifinals at 9 a.m. Friday. That will be followed by No. 2-seeded Buffalo against No. 3-seeded Akron.

NIU junior forward A’Jah Davis led all players in the game with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Davis made 6 of 7 shots from the field and was 5 for 6 at the free-throw line. It was her 24th double-double of the season. Jayden Marable added 14 points and four rebounds, and Janae Poisson had 13 points and five rebounds for fourth-seeded NIU (14-15).

“We played together and used momentum in our favor,” Poisson said. “We played really good defense to power our offense.”

Poisson extended the Huskies’ lead to 17 early in the second quarter, scoring NIU’s first five points to make the score 29-12 with 8:39 left in the half. Ball State then went on a 9-0 run as back-to-back Estel Puiggros 3-pointers cut the Huskies’ lead to 29-21 at the 6:01 mark. Poisson knocked down her third 3-pointer of the half on NIU’s next possession to put the Huskies up, 32-21. The Huskies shot 44.4% from the field in the first half and 50% from the 3-point line, to take a 34-24 halftime advantage.

The Huskies grew the lead to 15 on a Marable three-point play at the 8:50 mark that made the score 39-24. Ball State used a 9-2 run midway through the third quarter to make the score 42-35 on an Ally Becki layup at the 3:54 mark. Becki made a 3 with 1:19 left, and Chyna Latimer added a layup in the final minute to cut NIU’s lead to four, 44-40, going into the fourth quarter.

Ball State (19-11) took its first lead since the first quarter with 8:29 to go in the game, as a Becki 3-pointer and a pair of Latimer free throws put the Cardinals ahead, 45-44. NIU then traded baskets with Ball State, with Davis and Mikayla Brandon combining for six NIU points to keep the deficit at one with 2:44 remaining. The Cardinals got back-to-back layups from Puiggros and Sydney Freeman to go up, 57-52, with 54 seconds to go in the game. NIU was able to get as close as three, but Ball State made its free throws down the stretch to secure the win.

NIU finished the game shooting 41.2% from the field but only 6 for 20 from the 3-point line. The Huskies held Ball State to 35.1% shooting and outrebounded the Cardinals, 38-31. Ball State scored 19 points off 19 NIU turnovers. Becki led the Cardinals with 15 points.

“It’s not often that you lose your best player and you can continue to play winning basketball,” Carlsen said of Chelby Koker’s season-ending injury in January when reflecting on NIU’s season. “I’ll always be proud of this group for their resiliency. The experience for someone like Jayden was something that’s just going to propel her to be that much better of a player. A’Jah absolutely accepted the challenge of being ever more of the focal point of what we’re trying to do. I’m excited to see what she’s going to do as she continues to grow as a player.”