2020-21 Record Book 2020-2021 Huskie Basketball Record Book Niu Hall of Fame Inductees

2020-21 RECORD BOOK 2020-2021 HUSKIE BASKETBALL RECORD BOOK NIU HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES PATTY With over a half-century of tradition from The Appalachian State graduate took over a DELP which to draw, women’s basketball has made program which had won more than 15 games a lasting impression in the history of Northern only one time in its first 27 campaigns, but Illinois University athletics. A large part of brought Northern Illinois into the national that hardwood heritage has a permanent spotlight in short order. In her fifth season, place in Huskie lore with 13 representatives Albright guided her team to its first-ever 20- in the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame. win campaign as Northern Illinois finished 23-7 and reached the championship game of Tammy Hinchee the 1989 North Star Conference tournament. Hinchee is No. 1 on NIU’s all-time leading That season also featured a school-record rebounds list with 1,099, second all-time for 15-game winning streak. NIU surpassed the career blocked shots with 200, third in career 100-point mark six times that year. scoring (1,921) and career field goals (783) But the 1988-89 campaign proved to be and is sixth on the all-time list for career free only a prelude for the Huskies, who compiled throws made with 351. During the Huskies a 26-5 mark the following season and climbed 1989-90 season, she averaged 19.7 points to the No. 14 spot in the Associated Press and 10.4 recounds a game. national rankings. One of those victories came She was named team co-MVP, First Team on Feb. 15, 1989, when an overflow crowd All-NSC, First Team USBWA All-District Four of 6,118 fans flooded Evans Field House and preseason Honorable Mention Women’s to watch Northern Illinois defeat perennial Basketball News All-America her senior year. nemesis DePaul University. She had 99 double-digit scoring performances NIU topped the Blue Demons again to in 116 games during her four-year career. She capture the North Star tourney title on March was a member of the Huskies’ first team to 10, 1990, and joined the NCAA’s “Big Dance” reach the NCAA Tournament. for the first time. The Huskies led the nation in scoring at 94.5 points per game—still E.C. Hill fourth-highest in NCAA history— and also The All-America guard became a member with a .775 free throw percentage. NIU’s of the Hall of Fame sorority in October 2004. .502 field goal rate ranked fourth nationally. The Whitney Young High School standout Albright reached the 20-win plateau again earned All-America accolades from the U.S. in 1990-91 when the Huskies lost just once in Basketball Writers Association as a senior 17 games at mid-season, but a late-season in 1993-94, leading Northern Illinois to the slide resulted in an NWIT bid and a 25-10 NCAA tournament for the third consecutive final ledger. season. NIU’s 24-6 overall ledger included an NIU returned to the NCAA tournament in unblemished (18-0) mark in the Mid-Continent 1992 as the capstone to an 18-14 campaign, Conference and a 24-1 mark after an 0-3 start. and won back-to-back Mid-Continent Hill’s 22.0 points per game scoring pace Conference titles the following two seasons. that season featured the game-winner as the Albright’s Huskies dominated the Mid-Con, Huskies upset then-fourth-ranked Iowa on going 33-1 in league play and winning the Jan. 25, 1994. She hit double figures in all 1993 loop tournament. Even a loss in the but one of the team’s 30 games that season, 1994 tourney final wasn’t enough to keep part of a résumé which includes 85 such the Huskies out of the “Big Dance” for a third performances in her career. Hill surpassed year in a row. the 25-point mark 25 times and scored 30 Following a loss to Southwest Missouri LISA points or more in three separate contests. State University in the first round of the 1994 STAROSTA The Chicago native sat out her freshman NCAA tournament, Albright took the reins season due to academic restrictions, but still at the University of Wisconsin where she ranks sixth in school history with her 1,638 coached the Badgers to five more NCAA career points. Her 17.8 ppg. norm is fourth tournaments and a pair of Women’s NIT in school annals, but Hill also contributed in appearances in nine seasons. areas other than scoring. She stands third on the all-time Huskie list with 392 assists and Lisa Foss holds the same spot on NIU’s steal charts at The sharp-shooting guard entered the 259 —just 17 thefts behind Leslie Pottinger, Hall of Fame in 1997 after setting a Huskie who played 32 more games at Northern standard with 2,500 points in her (1987-91) Illinois. Hill holds the school’s single-season career while playing for fellow Hall of Famer mark with 100 counts of larceny in 1992-93. Jane Albright. Foss burned out scoreboards across the Jane Albright nation, posting a total which still ranks among NIU’s former head coach entered the Hall of the top 25 in NCAA Division I history. She Fame in 2003. Albright directed the Huskies scored 20 or more points an amazing 69 times, to four NCAA tournament appearances during including 13 games with 30 or more tallies a five-year span at the conclusion of her and 17 more between 25 and 29 points. (1984-94) tenure in DeKalb. She remains As a senior, “Light ‘em Up Lisa” ranked the winningest coach in program history, ninth in the nation in scoring with an average posting a 188-110 (.631 percentage) ledger of 24.4 points per game in 1990-91. She in her decade at the helm. posted 20 or more points in 10 consecutive 2 NIUHUSKIES.COM 2020-2021 HUSKIE BASKETBALL RECORD BOOK NIU HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES games at one stretch and 26 times during the 800 meters in 1979. Her versatility was the season. That productivity helped her rewarded with a Hall of Fame plaque in 1993. reach double digits in scoring 117 times in 122 career games, including each of her last Lisa Starosta 51 outings in the Cardinal and Black. Lisa Starosta was the first Huskie to tally Foss still owns an incredible 17 school 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her four- records, including the Huskie standards season career (1980-81, 1982-85). Her 1,810 for career points and scoring average points still rank fourth on the all-time NIU list, (20.5 points per game). Her 41 points while she remains fourth in rebounds (1,003), versus 14th-ranked Washington led NIU ninth in steals (201) and eighth in blocked to the championship of the Fastbreak Fest shots (79). Starosta and Owens are the only tournament and also matched the school Huskies to rank in the top 10 in four of the single-game scoring record. five major statistical categories, a testament to Starosta’s multi-faceted game. Carol Owens The 1990 Hall of Fam e inductee averaged The 1995 inductee anchored the middle a “double-double” with rates of 16.5 points as a two-time Kodak District IV All-America plus 10.0 rebounds per game to earn First selection for Hall of Fame coach Jane Albright. Team All-Mid-American Conference selection Owens, a product of Chicago’s Notre in 1984-85 and was a Second-Team All-MAC Dame High School, posted 2,102 career choice in 1983-84. points (second behind Foss on the all-time list) plus 1,028 rebounds, 256 steals and a Doreen Zierer school-record 244 blocked shots in her Huskie A former teammate of Hillard, Zierer gained career (1985-90). She also registered one of CoSIDA Third Team Academic All-America two “triple-doubles” in school history en route honors in 1981-82 after ranking 15th in the to USBWA District IV All-America honors and nation in scoring at 22.9 points per game. the second of her two straight appearances “D.Z.” became the first Huskie to hit the on the Kodak District IV All-America unit. She 1,000-point mark, reaching that plateau on had 23 points, 10 rebounds and 11 steals February 28, 1981. That scoring prowess DOREEN versus Western Illinois on Dec. 1, 1988. made her a first team All-MAC pick in both ZIERER Owens paced Northern Illinois to its initial 1980-81 and 1981-82, with the latter honor NCAA berth, leading the way with 21.7 points joining special mention accolades from per game to earn North Star Conference Basketball Weekly magazine in her personal Player of the Year accolades. Owens résumé. established NIU’s single-game scoring mark Zierer’s 698 points in the 1981-82 campaign with 41 points versus the University of Illinois represented the school single-season mark on December 16, 1989, one of eight times until Foss’ exploits nine years later. Her 1979- she poured in 30 or more in a single contest. 82 tenure included 1,712 points—leaving “C.O.” shot 52 percent or better from the field her fifth in NIU history—plus 841 rebounds LISA in each of her four full seasons and still boasts (eighth on the all-time list) and 215 steals FOSS the best career touch (.537) in school history.

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