Lady Norse lose a heartbreaker to Toledo

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Photo courtesy of Northern Kentucky Athletics

The road show continued for the Northern Kentucky Lady Norse as they headed to Toledo to take on the Rockets, winners of 16-straight at home. What looked to be a streak buster for the Norse, turned the other way in the decisive fourth quarter and Toledo kept the home winning streak intact with a 76-73 win.

Halle Idowu, who had played one season at Toledo during the 2021-2022 season, scored eight points to help the Lady Norse jump out to a 19-15 lead after one despite the Rockets outscoring NKU 13-10 over the last 5 minutes of the quarter.

NKU started the second quarter right where they left off scoring on back-to-back buckets by Jaci Jones and Idowu to put the Norse up 23-15. An Abby Wolterman bucket and free throw extended the Norse lead to 26-19 with 8:18 remaining in the half.

Both teams went cold from the field for the next 2 minutes until a three-point jumper by Toledo’s Khera Goss broke the drought and pulled the Rockets to within 26-22 with 6:29 left.

Mya Meredith, playing in her second game since sitting out the 2023-24 season with a knee injury, hit a short jumper for the Norse to answer and the NKU was up 28-22.

NKU took advantage of a combination of Toledo missed shots and turnovers and raced out to a 38-24 lead capped by a Noelle Hubert three-pointer. During the 3-minute run, the Lady Norse got contributions from Hubert along with senior Macey Blevins, who scored 5-points.

The Norse finished out the half on layups from both Meredith and Blevins and headed to the locker room up 42-32 at the half.

NKU shot 56% from the field in the first half and outscored Toledo 38-18 in the paint.

Both teams traded baskets to begin the second half and headed to the first TV timeout of the half with the Norse ahead 51-41.

Back-to-back buckets out of the timeout from Halle Idowu pushed the Norse lead back to 55-41 with 4:06 remaining in the third.

Toledo continued to chip away at the deficit over the next three minutes, a result of careless turnovers by the NKU and sending the Rockets to the line and cut the Norse lead to 58-52 with 1:06 left in the quarter.

Two free throws from Macey Blevins pushed the lead back up to 60-52 and ended the Toledo run. Halle Idowu hit two free throws of her own to extend the Norse lead to 62-54, but a put back at the buzzer by Toledo’s Faith Fedd-Robinson after a missed three pointer, ended the third quarter with NKU clinging to a 62-56 lead.

During the third quarter, Toledo outscored the Norse 24-20.

The fourth quarter saw Toledo continue their comeback after a Khera Goss layup cut the Norse lead to 62-58 before a deep three from the corner from Jaci Jones stopped the run and kept the Norse on top 65-58. Goss took no time answering on the other end with a three of her own and a Kendall Carruthers free throw cut the NKU lead to 65-62 with 7:27 remaining in the game.

Carruthers added two more free throws after a Jaci Jones turnover and missed jumper by Halle Idowu and the Norse lead was down to 65-64.

A Blevins free throw pushed the NKU lead to 66-64 with 6:04 remaining.

Toledo took their first lead of the game after a missed three pointer by the Rockets Jessica Cook was rebounded by Sammi Mikonowicz and put back as she was fouled by Halle Idowu. Mikonowicz completed the three-point play and Toledo led 67-66 with 5:47 left.

The Toledo lead did not las long as Macey Blevins drilled a three-point jumper to put the Norse back in the lead, but that lead was short lived as Toledo’s Nan Garcia hit a short jumper to tie it back up at sixty-nine heading to the final television timeout.

The Norse retook the lead out of the timeout on a Kamora Morgan jumper to go up 71-69. Another Morgan layup pushed the NKU lead to three at 73-70 with 1:39 remaining in the game.

NKU had an opportunity to push the lead to five with under a minute to play but a Halle Idowu missed layup allowed Toledo to go down and hit an uncontested three-pointer to tie it back up at 73 with fifty-one seconds remaining.

A Blevins missed layup with thirty-one seconds remaining allowed Toledo to play for the final shot. After a Rocket timeout, they worked the clock down to under ten seconds where Nan Garcia rebounded her own missed shot and hit a put back with two seconds remaining to put the Rockets up 75-73.

NKU called a timeout and chose to advance the ball and inbound in front of their own bench for what they hoped to be a chance at a last second shot. A Mya Meredith inbounds pass was deflected but ended up bouncing back to her, but she was unable to establish herself inbounds and Toledo took over possession. A Khera Goss free throw with one second remaining was the final margin.

NKU was led in scoring by Macey Blevins with twenty-one points. Halle Idowu scored eighteen points to go along with six rebounds. Mya Meredith chipped in ten points.

The Norse shot 50% from the field for the game (30-60) and 62% from behind the arc (5-8). Norse outscored Toledo in the paint 44-28. However, the biggest discrepancy in the stats was the number of free throw attempts Toledo had compared to the Norse, with the Rockets heading to the line twenty-eight times and converting on twenty-two of those, whereas the Norse only headed to the line eleven times, hitting on eight of those.

With the loss, the Lady Norse fall to 2-3 overall. NKU gets a week off before continuing their early season road trip with visits to Southern Indiana on Saturday, November 23rd and a visit to Bradley on Wednesday, November 27th.

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