The NKU Norse, winners of their last four games, re-entered the conference portion of the schedule as they welcomed in Detroit Mercy, losers of their last four.
The Norse were looking to go 2-0 in conference and pull to .500 overall for the season. In the end, NKU was able to pull away late from a pesky Detroit squad and get a 73-60 win.
The Good
NKU has now won four in a row and moves to 2-0 early in the conference slate.
Trey Robinson rebounded from a tough game against Norfolk State to share a team high in points with 19 to go along with five rebounds.
Randall Pettus continued his improved play by scoring 19 points and grabbing four rebounds.
Pettus, when asked what he has been seeing from the defense to allow him to score more, he responded, “No difference, just trying to trust in the system and be aggressive.”
Keeyan Itejere took advantage of getting in the lane for short jumpers all night, netting 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting and grabbed a team high seven rebounds and blocking four shots.
When asked what the difference has been over the course of the last few games finding his offensive rhythm, Itejere responded, “My confidence to go score. Coach tells me to go score and not be afraid. Having a more aggressive mentality brings me more confidence.”
Josh Dilling shook off a slow shooting night to end up with 11 points to go along with two assists.
NKU outscored Detroit in points in the paint 28-20 and won the bench points 22-12.
The Not-So-Good
NKU turned the ball over 11 times resulting in 16 points for Detroit.
The Norse shot 44% (11-of-25) from the line.
NKU had difficulty putting Detroit away. The Norse could not put together enough offensive conversions early on to put the game away. It wasn’t until the last 3-4 minutes that they were able put some distance between them and Detroit.
Takeaways
The Norse are 2-0 in conference. In the end, while it wasn’t always pretty, NKU found a way to turn what was a close game most of the night, into a 13-point win and continue to hold serve on their home court.
Sam Vinson went scoreless in the box score but still managed to dish out eight assists to go along with three steals. Vinson did not allow a poor scoring night to affect other portions of his game and continues to show his true versatility and value to this team even if he is not scoring.
When asked to speak to the win, coach Darrin Horn said, “Good for us to see another game where some guys are not at their very best, but other guys stepped up. The strength of our team tonight was the team, we don’t have to have one guy that has to have 18-20 points every single night. We’ve three, four, five and even six guys capable of getting 15 to 16 points a night. Good to see how unselfishly we are playing offensively.”
NKU will wrap up the non-conference portion of its schedule on Saturday, December 21st as the Norse take on South Carolina State for a Noon ET tip.