TAKING ADVANTAGE OF CHARITY. On occasion, the Lady Huskies hold a fund-raiser in which the team shoots free throws and donors base their contributions on the free throws the sponsored player makes out of 100. The team is among the national leaders in free throw percentage, and that ability helps in difficult situations.

“I thought that Northern Illinois won the game on the foul line today,” said [Buffalo Sabres] head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald. “I have to give credit to them because I thought they did a nice job taking advantage of penetration and going hard to the offensive boards and causing us to foul. We have to do a better job boxing out because today it killed us and you can win a game on the foul line.”

Or, if the opposing coach gets the message, get the game finished faster. The strategy of fouling to get the ball back, which prolongs the final two minutes of far too many games, is not effective if the other team is making its free throws. Buffalo have a team that has many of its games by small margins, somewhat like Northern Illinois a year ago.

Elsewhere, Badgerball returns with an emulation of the football team, scoring two touchdowns and a field goal unanswered to end the first half.