Women’s basketball

NIU 70, Eastern Michigan 61: At DeKalb, the Huskies (6-22 overall, 3-13 Mid-American Conference) never trailed the Eagles (12-15, 5-11), powered Nevaeh Wingate’s 21 points.

Maria Serracanta added 12 points and 11 assists, playing all 40 minutes.

“I’m really proud of our effort for 40 minutes today,” NIU coach Jacey Brooks said. “We talked about setting the tone in the first five minutes and we did that. It’s the most complete game we’ve played this year which is encouraging. It’s the end of February and that’s when you want to play your best basketball.”

Serracanta, a transfer from Mercer, was the first Huskie since December 2021 to have a double-double with assists and points. She made all five of her shots from the field.

“I was finding my teammates open in the first half, and once they took that away I was more aggressive offensively,” Serracanta said after her first career double-double. “The coaches have all the confidence in me so I just go out there and play.”

Emilie Sorensen scored 15 and Sa’Mahn Johnson scored 10.

Men’s basketball

Ball State 79, NIU 43: At DeKalb, the Huskies (9-19, 4-12) were held to their lowest point total since a 79-41 loss at Dayton on Dec. 4, 2021.

“This was an extremely disappointing performance,” NIU coach Rashon Burno said. “We weren’t ready to play. We lacked discipline, toughness … our guys are pretty beat up about our performance. I thought they had the right intentions; we just couldn’t execute anything from start to finish.”

The Huskies shot 23.5% from long range and 25.6% from the floor in the game. NIU is shooting 42.2% from the floor this year, 318th out of 361 NCAA Division I programs.

The Cardinals shot 50% from the floor and are shooting 40.9% on the year, 342nd best in the country.

Daemar Kelly scored nine points to lead the Huskies.

Boys swimming

IHSA State Meet (Friday): At Plainfield, the season ended for DeKalb-Sycamore in the preliminary round.

Sean Harrelson took 19th in the 100-yard breaststroke in 57.73. He was less than 0.4 behind a qualifying time, the closest the Barbs came to reaching Saturday’s finals. Harrelson was 36th in the 50 free in 21.78.

The 200 medley relay of Harrelson, Luke Oland, Justin Wu and Evan Johnson finished 36th in 1:39.05. Oland, Logan Borth, Johnson and Harrelson finished 30th in the 200 relay in 1:29.62.