The College of Charleston Cougars took a trip to Highland Heights for a noon road game against the NKU Norse on Sunday. Northern Kentucky came into this one looking to make up for its first home loss of the season. The Norse were unsuccessful in getting redemption, as their final non-conference contest resulted in an 85-74 victory for Charleston in the team’s second meeting in program history.
Former IU Indy Jaguar Jlynn Counter got the scoring started on the day with a contested layup. A slam dunk from Chol Machot that followed gave the visiting Cougars the first punch in this one. NKU matched that effort with consecutive scores of their own to quickly take their first lead of the game. The first few minutes were capped off with a corner three from CoC’s Jaxon Prunty and a steal and score from Counter, who was just getting started on the great game he had.
After an exchange of a few baskets, Connor Hickman scored five straight to give the Cougars a lead of exactly that. NKU responded with a quick 10-5 run, with scores from Dan Gherezgher and Kael Robinson, to tie the game at 22. Three different Cougars helped spark a run of their own that led to a seven point lead and a timeout by NKU head coach Darrin Horn.
That is when the size disparity between the teams became apparent. The Cougars have two seven-footers on the roster. The tallest player to see minutes for the Norse is 6’8″, that player being Wells, who picked up three first half fouls after Charleston focused in on being aggressive in the paint. One of the size problems for NKU was Charleston center Christian Reeves. He scored five points in the next stretch and helped put the Norse in some foul trouble. The visitors achieved their biggest lead to that point (10) as they headed to the break up 40-30.
Coach Horn was frustrated with the lack of aggressiveness from Northern Kentucky in the opening half.
“I just think quite honestly, our guys weren’t very good. We’re turning the ball over and passing up open shots. Didn’t play with the level of aggressiveness we needed to. I’m talking mental aggressiveness, let’s go hoop.”
Charleston shot 53% overall in the first half, in part due to a 15-7 advantage in points off turnovers and the size disparity which gave the Cougars an 18-10 edge in the paint over the first 20 minutes. The Norse have been good this season with a balanced scoring effort, but struggled here, with Robinson and Gherezgher accounting for 20 of the 30 points and only having four total players score before the break.
The Norse came out more aggressive to begin the final half. Donovan Oday scored six of the game’s first eight points in the half, the last of which being a steal and slam that put him over 1,000 career points. Baskets from Hickman pushed the lead back to eight before a 7-2 run cut the deficit to three for the Norse going into the first media timeout.
The other size problem the Norse faced was 7’0″ Machot, who started to put pressure on the post defenders of Northern Kentucky and gave Charleston a little more breathing room. Robinson and Gherezgher kept the home team within reach, and an offensive rebound and score by Tae Dozier even gave the Norse their first lead in a long time at 62-61. The teams went back and forth from there until Counter tied the score at 67, much to the delight of the kids in attendance at Truist Arena.
That is also the moment Counter decided that the child’s play was over as well. Including that tying basket, Counter had 15 of the final 18 points to secure the victory for the Cougars as part of a 21 point second half onslaught. It did not matter who the Norse put in front of Counter; the former Horizon League player would not be denied against a team he was very familiar with as he scored on what seemed like every possession. Coach Horn spoke to the effort from his team down the stretch as they hopelessly tried to stop the hot hand.
“I think he’s a confident player that just looked about four different of our guys in the eye and just went and scored on them. Give him credit. We got to get a lot tougher. Too many easy one on one baskets for guys.”
The Norse have now dropped two in a row at Truist Arena after a perfect start in front of the home fans. Horn said his team can turn things around but it will take his whole team getting tougher.
“It’s the discipline. LJ Wells in foul trouble because he’s in rotation helping for guys that did a bad job guarding the ball. 17 turnovers and the other team shoots 29 free throws. It’s really hard to win that way.”
Northern Kentucky drops to 9-5 on the season with this loss. NKU will get a much needed break for the holidays with a week off and resume action on December 29th, when they travel to Robert Morris to get back into Horizon League play. The game will be at 7 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.
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