The Northern Kentucky Norse traveled to Mount Pleasant Michigan on Thursday for their first meeting in program history with the Central Michigan Chippewas looking for their first road win of the season. They got it in dominant fashion as they led wire-to-wire in a 90-66 victorious effort. This was the first win for NKU against a MAC school since Darrin Horn’s first season as head coach of the Norse.
The game was tight to start. NKU’s LJ Wells and Kael Robinson opened the scoring on the night to give NKU an early lead. The Chippewas answered with three of the game’s next four baskets as seniors Nick Mullen and Nathan Claerbaut found openings in the paint. Robinson started to take over for Northern Kentucky from that point. He scored nine of the next 14 points for the visiting team which led to the first double digit lead of the night.
The Norse kept their foot on the gas with fast break layups and three pointers from Shawn Nelson and Wells that gave NKU a 28-18 lead with eight minutes left in the opening half. New additions Donovan Oday and Tae Dozier kept the good night rolling for the Norse, particularly in transition. Suffocating defense from Northern Kentucky kept them up double digits for a good portion of the first half. CMU attempted to get some momentum going into the half with back to back triples from Logan Mcintire.
Those efforts were quickly thwarted thanks to a Wells drop-step dunk and an Oday corner three that gave NKU the momentum back and a 44-30 advantage heading into the locker room.
The story of the first half was the unwavering hustle of NKU. They forced Central Michigan into 10 first half turnovers and capitalized on those turnovers for 17 points off. NKU also blanked CMU 16-0 in terms of fast break points. Their defense impacted the perimeter too, only allowing two total players to register a three point make before halftime for the Chippewas.
The front court of the Chippewas provided another spark coming out of halftime as the duo of Claerbaut and Mullen combined for six quick points coming out of the break to cut the deficit to eight. The Norse were not rattled as they continued to take advantage of the fast break and the zone defense that CMU refused to back out of that allowed open corner threes all night long and they were cashing in on those chances.
Claerbaut and Mullen mustered up one final effort with paint points to draw Central Michigan back within 10 again, but that is as close as the Norse would allow them to get the rest of the night. Consecutive plays of Wells scoring on an assist from newcomer Ethan Elliot, followed by Wells returning the favor to Elliot for an easy layup sparked a run for NKU. The ensuing 15-7 run for Northern Kentucky was capped off by an isolation bucket at the rim from Dan Gherezgher that put the Norse up 20 and it was all cosmetic from that point as NKU coasted to the win.
The swarming defense propelled NKU to victory. They had five players register multiple steals leading to a 25-0 advantage in fast break points and a 26-9 edge in points off turnovers. When the Norse weren’t scoring in transition, they were taking advantage of the open looks they were getting on corner threes as a result of the Central Michigan zone defense. The Norse tallied a season high 13 triples on the night, three of which came from Donovan Oday who shined for the Norse in a season high 20 point showing.
Four players registered double digit points for NKU on the night and all but two of the 10 players who saw playing time contributed some scoring. NKU head coach Darriin Horn talked after the game about what a team effort it was.
“One of the great things about this team is we don’t have a go-to guy, but we’ve got a lot of guys that are capable of 15 or 20 (points), so it was really good to see the guys play well tonight.” he said.
NKU will look to harness this momentum as they begin a four game home stand on Monday. Their first game back home will be a clash with intrastate foe Eastern Kentucky. The game will tip-off at 7 p.m. at Truist Arena and can be seen on ESPN+.
Subscribe to our emails, and get our latest posts in your inbox, plus a weekly digest of everything we've published!
