For Northern Kentucky, the story of Wednesday night’s game at Truist Arena was a stunning fourth-quarter comeback that transformed a deficit that once touched 14 points against heavily-favored Cleveland State into a 72-69 victory.
Star NKU post player Halle Idowu delivered the game’s signature moment, when she poked the ball away from the Vikings’ Mickayla Perdue, with her team up by one in the closing ten seconds of the contest, a last defensive stand by the Norse during a final period that had seen a long string of them.
“What a performance. What a second half by our team,” said new NKU head coach Jeff Hans, who hopes that the result can serve as a fulcrum for his program building efforts.
“There were a lot of different options for [Perdue], but in hindsight, I felt like she should’ve turned the corner and attacked it down pretty aggressive with it,” Hans’ counterpart, Chris Kielsmeier said. “But I’m going to put the ball in Micky’s hands in those situations, and almost always, she’s going to make a play.”
Essentially, it was Idowu’s second game-winning play in a row, after her late jumper and subsequent steal provided the clinching moments in Northern Kentucky’s comeback victory against IU Indianapolis on Saturday.
However, for Cleveland State, it was also more of the same: a leaky perimeter defense that helped keep the Norse afloat for most of the evening, followed by another loss where the Vikings couldn’t make enough plays in the waning moments.
“It’s the fourth game of the year that we’ve lost in the last minute,” Kielsmeier said, referencing previous defeats to Akron, Purdue Fort Wayne, and Oakland. “That sucks, we’ve gotta win those games.”
NKU finished a steel-melting 16-for-31 from three-point range, led by Kalissa Lacy (5-for-12 from deep, producing a team-high 15 points), Jaci Jones, Mya Meredith (both 3-for-5), and Abby Wolterman (2-for-2). When counting three Macey Blevins free throws after drawing a foul during another attempt, Northern Kentucky essentially scored 51 of its 72 points from three-pointers, including 42 of 49 during the first three quarters.
“We took what they gave us,” Hans said. “Kalissa kept us in it early on, in the first half, as much as possible. She kept us within striking distance with some threes – even banked one in.”
“You’ve seen this story all year,” Kielsmeier lamented. “We can’t defend the three-point line. Most nights, we’re just good enough offensively to overcome it.”
For most of the game, it appeared that CSU would indeed be good enough offensively to survive the Norse’s aerial assault. The Vikings scored the first nine points of the game, and managed to keep NKU at arm’s length for the next 30 minutes, finding ways to outscore a prolific deep attack that was nearly exclusively the home side’s source of offense until the fourth quarter.
Perdue, Sara Guerreiro and Jordana Reisma each contributed heavily to that effort. Perdue logged a game-high 20 points, mostly in transition, Guerreiro gave her usual column-stuffing effort with 16 points and 12 rebounds, while Reisma fell just short of a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds.
It wasn’t always pretty – CSU turned the ball over 20 times – but it seemed like it was going to work.
Then, rather abruptly, things shifted.
After the Vikings held reigning Horizon League Player of the Week Idowu to just three points on 1-for-7 shooting during the first three quarters, she and her teammates began to use the threat of the three-ball to find more traction inside. Simultaneously, a Cleveland State offense that appeared headed to an 80-point effort for most of the game suddenly collapsed, including a 3:27 scoring drought during a pivotal span of the fourth quarter.
“We just missed a lot of easy shots tonight,” Kielsmeier said. “I also thought Northern Kentucky played great. They came after us, and we were just back on our heels. We had a lot of opportunities to increase that lead throughout the course of the game and didn’t take advantage of it.”
NKU capitalized on the Vikings’ struggles with a 9-2 run that tied the game at 65-65 with 3:02 to go, thanks to four straight points by Idowu.
Hans believed that his team’s more measured fourth quarter offense helped feed the Norse defense.
“We were able to make some shots and get some baskets in, [then] we were able to get back in defensive transition and get set up,” he said. “That eliminates some of the things they’re able to do at the rim or kicking back and hitting trail threes, like they were in the first half.”
Guerreiro responded with four straight Vikings points to give her team its final lead, 69-68 with 1:48 to go, but CSU misfired on its final three possessions, while Idowu and Noelle Hubert provided the decisive scoring at the free throw line.
“This has been who we’ve been too often this year,” Kielsmeier said. “Some nights we get away with it, other nights we don’t.”
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