Valiant Effort Against Green Bay Comes Up Short For Lady Norse

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Photo courtesy of Northern Kentucky Athletics

The NKU Lady Norse looked to continue their winning ways during their current 3-game home stand as they welcomed in Green Bay for a matinee matchup on Saturday. The Phoenix dealt NKU a 78-59 defeat in early January in Green Bay and entered the game at 16-5 overall and 9-1 in conference, winners of their last 9 games and sitting one game behind Purdue Fort Wayne for the top spot in the Horizon League.

On the other side, the Lady Norse were coming off a thrilling 66-62 win over visiting Milwaukee on Thursday evening and entered the contest at 7-14 overall and 4-6 in conference, good for sixth place in the Horizon League.

NKU threw everything they had at Green Bay but at the end of the day, the Phoenix were just too much and escaped with a 64-56 win.

As one would expect, Green Bay opened the game with a quick 6-0 run out of the gate, however the Lady Norse quickly answered and went on a 7-0 run of their own to take the lead 7-6 heading to the first television timeout of the first quarter.

Both teams struggled to find the basket the rest of the quarter and they headed to the second frame tied at 11.

The struggle continued to start the second quarter for both teams, however Green Bay managed to put together another quick 8-2 run with 5:13 remaining in the half and pushed their advantage to 19-13, forcing a Norse timeout.

The remainder of the second quarter would see Green Bay outscore the Lady Norse 9-7 and both teams headed to the locker room with the Phoenix leading 29-20.

The Norse struggled mightily shooting the ball in the first half. NKU shot 20% from the field (7-34) and 20% from behind the arc (2-10).

Meanwhile, Green Bay was on fire from the field in the first half shooting 53% from behind the arc.

Ironically, the Norse had the advantage in many of the other meaningful stats in the first half, outrebounding the Phoenix 29-22, with 12 of those coming on the offensive end of the floor. NKU’s defense forced Green Bay into 6 turnovers, and they outscored them 10-8 in the paint.

It was a tale of two halves for the Norse as they came out in the second half hitting the first three points of the quarter to cut into the Green Bay lead and stayed with striking distance. A 6-0 run in the middle of the quarter, spurred by a deep three from Jaci Jones, an Abby Wolterman layup in the lane and a made free throw by Halle Idowu, allowed the Norse to pull within 5 points at 40-35 as both teams headed to the media timeout.

Out of the timeout, another run by the Norse saw Wolterman hit another layup in the lane and Macey Blevins drain a deep three and NKU closed the gap to 43-40 with 2:32 remaining in the third quarter.

Both teams traded baskets the final minutes and headed to the final frame with Green Bay leading 47-42.

A quick Phoenix 5-0 run of their own opened the fourth quarter and extended their lead to 52-42 until a Wolterman short jumper stopped the momentum with 6:43 remaining in the game. She would add a free throw to cut the Phoenix lead to 52-45 heading to the television timeout.

The Green Bay lead would remain mostly at seven the remainder of the game as both teams traded missed baskets and turnovers before NKU was forced to begin fouling down the stretch and the Phoenix took advantage hitting their free throws. A Jones layup with 10-seconds remaining represented the final margin.

NKU finished the game shooting 32% from the field (21-65) and 23% from behind the arc (5-21). 

Macey Blevins led the Norse with 16 points.  Halle Idowu pitched in 12 points to go along with 11 rebounds.  Wolterman added 11 points of her own to go with 9 rebounds.  Mya Meredith scored 5 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.

The Good

  • There were plenty of positives to take away from the loss. The Lady Norse showed at times they were able to hang with the Horizon League leaders leading midway through the first quarter as well as only trailing by 5 heading to the final quarter.
  • When asked to expand on what positives he took away from the game, Head Coach Jeff Hans stated, “There are a lot of positives in a lot of ways. My demeanor may not show it right now, but it’s just frustration. To see us battle back, being down 9 at the half, I thought our competitiveness was much better for forty minutes, we just need to clean some things up. We have proven we can play with some of the top teams, we just need to started believing in that.”
  • Hans also elaborated on the team’s ability to win the battle in the paint by saying, “I think our want-to was there. Abby Wolterman alluded last game the job was to get more boards and she went out and did that, had some big put backs, kept possessions alive.”
  • Hans also commended Meredith for her defensive effort holding one of Green Bay’s leading scorers Natalie McNeal in check most of the game – McNeal was held to 7 points on 2-16 shooting. “Mya Meredith had a tough assignment all day long, she didn’t score today like she had been scoring, but her effort defensively was tremendous.”
  • The Norse defense forced Green Bay into 12 turnovers, while only committing 6 of their own.

The Not-So-Good

  • If there was a major factor, it was the first half shooting – the Norse shot a miserable 20% from both the field and from behind the arc.
  • Norse lost the battle of fast break points 18-13.
  • Green Bay’s bench outscored NKU 9-4.

Next Up

  • The home stand continues for the Lady Norse as they welcome in Detroit Mercy on Wednesday.

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