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| Northern Illinois guard Marke Freeman (left) scored 36 points and led NIU to a 93-88 overtime victory over Buffalo on Saturday. (Beck Diefenbach – bdiefenbach@daily-chronicle.com) |
DeKALB – They spoke, and Marke Freeman listened.
After talking with various coaches and former Northern Illinois women's basketball alumni over the past few weeks about leadership and what it takes to move a team forward, Freeman put the Huskies on her back and carried NIU to a dramatic, come-from-behind 93-88 overtime victory over Buffalo on Saturday at the Convocation Center.
Freeman scored a career-high 36 points, including 11 in the extra frame, to lead NIU (8-10, 2-4 Mid-American Conference West) to a much-needed win.
"Coming into this game I've been spoken to by a lot of great players and great coaches," Freeman said. "I think that really gave me the momentum going into this game. It gave me the energy and something to feed off of and something to work up to.
"They challenged me and I know I hadn't been doing a lot of the things I'm capable of doing the past couple of games. That just gave me the energy to step up."
Freeman's final stat line of 36 points, nine rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block led to Buffalo (5-14, 1-5 MAC East) coach Linda Hill-MacDonald to summarize her team's loss in two words.
"Marke Freeeman," Hill-MacDonald said.
The Huskies played without forward Mauvolyene Adams, who served a one-game suspension for a violation of team rules stemming from Wednesday's loss to Central Michigan which ended with Adams leaving the court in the final five minutes.
Also, forward Tenisha Wilson is away from the team indefinitely for what NIU coach Carol Owens called an inability to meet the expectations of the team. There is no timetable for Wilson's return.
Add that to forward Ebony Ellis still sidelined with a foot injury, and the Huskies were left with one true post player in freshman Shaakira Haywood and only eight players dressed.
It was little wonder then that the Huskies found themselves in an early hole and trailed by 16 points with 13 minutes left in the second half.
But, three straight three-pointers by Kylie York, Terriel Cannon and then York again cut the Buffalo lead to six.
"I just liked the fight that we had, coming off a tough game the other day," Owens said. "I just really liked our team's cohesiveness down the stretch and I liked the fight we had all day long."
With the Buffalo lead down to two with 2:23 left, Freeman completed the comeback with a reverse layup to tie the game. The teams traded free throws, including two by Freeman with 29 seconds left to tie it at 78, before going to overtime after Buffalo's Abby Dowd missed a potential game-winning jumper with seven seconds remaining.
It was there that Freeman took over.
She grabbed a defensive rebound and went coast-to-coast for a layup to give NIU a two-point lead, then extended it with an old-fashioned three-point play on the next offensive possession. She finished overtime going 6 of 6 from the free-throw line to clinch the victory.
Freeman said she didn't feel like more pressure was on her with the short bench.
"That just gave the team the opportunity to step up and take the challenge," she said. "But I didn't feel like there was more on me. Coming out of that locker room, everyone was just talking about sticking together."
After starting the conference season in a big hole, Owens said Saturday's win could be a building block for getting back into the conference race.
"I think it gives us momentum," Owens said. "We continue to go into the East and hopefully it gives us confidence to rely on each other and to trust each other."
