NKU hosted a Horizon League match-up with the Oakland Golden Grizzlies on Wednesday night. Northern Kentucky was looking to keep their perfect home record intact while Oakland was looking to win its third game in the last four and remain undefeated in the young conference play season. Both teams battled in what felt like a conference tournament contest and Oakland came away with the hard fought 82-77 victory.
Ziare Wells got the scoring started on the night with a layup. The Norse responded with three layups in a quick span. The Golden Grizzlies connected on a three to tie things back up in the opening minutes. The next three baskets for Oakland were easy looks from Isaac Garrett that led to an NKU timeout. NKU came out of the media timeout with some aggressive looks inside that led to layups for LJ Wells and Kael Robinson to recapture the lead for the home team.
Wells continued to lead the Norse attack over the next stretch, scoring six quick points. Oakland did not waver and went right back at Northern Kentucky in the paint and got layups to go from Khoi Thurman and Michael Houge to tie it up at 22 with eight minutes left in the half. Houge had six straight points for OU to give the visiting team their largest first half lead at six. Robinson had a personal run of his own for the Norse, scoring seven straight points for his team to give NKU a slim one point lead in the waning minutes of the opening half.
The final stretch of the first half saw Brody Robinson and Garrett do all the scoring for Oakland, combining for 11 points before the horn. Wells added four points to his impressive first half total of 16 for the Norse and Dan Gherezgher sank a three for his first basket of the first half. Despite that, the Golden Grizzlies took a three point lead to the break. A welcome sign as they came into the game with a 4-0 record when leading at half.
The first half was a back and forth affair with 10 lead changes and nine ties. The largest lead for either side was six. The game changers for the Norse were Wells who had a game high 16 points in the first half and their ability to contain preseason Horizon League player of the year Tuburu Naivalarua who was unable to register a point and committed three fouls heading into halftime. Oakland thrived behind the play of Garrett who led his team in points with 13 and forced tough perimeter looks for Northern Kentucky, only allowing a 3-13 shooting effort.
Threes and layups were exchanged to start the second half. A Wells block and fast break layup trimmed the Oakland lead to one. The Golden Grizzlies had a Wells of their own who scored consecutive buckets to push the lead back to the largest of six. Robinson cut that lead in half with a triple to conclude an opening stanza that didn’t see a break in action until the 13:21 mark.
Three different Norse followed the break with post scores and Houge had another personal run of his own to answer, scoring four points before a Garrett floater gave Oakland a four point lead with less than eight minutes left. NKU reclaimed the lead with three straight makes. OU quickly snatched back the lead with a flashy behind the back pass from Garrett to a Thurmon triple. Graduate transfer Tae Dozier returned the lead to Northern Kentucky with a three of his own with only two minutes left.
The last two minutes were all Oakland as they went on a 11-4 run to close out the game. The only field goal the Norse converted was a tip in for Dozier that was reviewed for a hostile act as Dozier was upended on the rebound. Officials deemed it to not be worthy of a flagrant foul and Robinson iced the game for Oakland at the charity stripe to end the game.
The charity stripe was a huge factor for the road victory. The Golden Grizzlies shot 29 free throws compared to the Norse who only shot 12. Dan Gherezgher, the leading scorer for NKU struggled, only putting up three points and shot 1-14 on the night. Oakland was able to maintain control of a tight contest, leading for nearly 27 minutes of the game. They did that despite getting a season low six points from Naivalaru.
NKU head coach Darrin Horn said the difference on the night was defense.
“We are not where we need to be defensively to win games like this. So many poor plays. Just lack of poise, quite honestly, stupid basketball plays to give them open looks. We’ve got to play with a better level of poise and discipline on the defensive end.” Horn added that a team effort will be needed to bounce back from the loss.
“What we need from all of these guys is to really grow in plays that lead to winning and sometimes that’s just having great discipline. That’s being a little bit tougher and sometimes it is stepping in and making a play on offense, but we got to be a lot tougher.”
This loss snaps the perfect home record to start the season for the Norse and moves them to 1-2 in conference play. They will look to start a new home winning streak on Sunday as they kick off a women’s and men’s basketball doubleheader at Truist Arena. The game will tip at noon and can be seen on ESPN+.
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