FARGO, N.D. - Despite four players scoring in double figures, the North Dakota State women's basketball team dropped the first game of the Carolyn DeHoff era to Northern Iowa, 77-73.  Junior Inger Hodgson scored a career-high 16 points and freshman Katie Birkel added 18 in her first collegiate game.  Abby Plucker tallied 12, while Jerri Penley had 10. A crowd of 2,056 packed the house for the Bison.

Behind 17 second half points from Nicole Clausen, the Panthers used a strong second frame to pull out the win. 

The Bison started the game strong, taking an 11-7 lead.  The Panthers quickly knotted the game at 17 apiece, but the Bison stole momentum right back when Birkel stripped Danielle Wubbens and took it in for a layup.  After that play, the Bison outscored the Panthers 14-7 in the half to take a 31-24 lead into the break.

The momentum continued for the Bison in the second half.  Abby Plucker drained a three right out of the gate and the team built on that to go up by 16 points.  The team could not maintain that lead though as the Panthers began to chip away. 

The game saw eight ties, with the last coming at the 4:46 mark in the second half.  The Panthers never led by more than five down the stretch.  A jumper by senior Jerri Penley cut the lead to two with two minutes left to play.  After a pair of UNI free throws, the lead was back up to five, but then Whitney Trecker was fouled shooting a three and converted all three free throws to cut the margin to two again.  Two free throws by the Panthers' Nicole Clausen sealed the four-point victory.

The Bison went 22-26 (84.6%) from the free throw line, but that could not combat the 11 three-pointers scored by UNI.