NKU came into Wednesday night looking to avoid its fifth straight loss and hoping to avenge a two-point win by Green Bay in their previous meeting. In a game where Northern Kentucky was without starting forward Kael Robinson and had LJ Wells and Ethan Elliot return for their first game of action since suffering injuries.
The Norse had a slow start, but fought back. NKU ultimately suffered defeat at the hands of the Phoenix 87-84 in overtime.
The Norse started quickly, jumping out to a 7-2 lead with a couple baskets from Tae Dozier and a mid-range jumper from Shawn Nelson — the replacement in the starting lineup for Robinson. The Phoenix answered with makes from four different players. NKU still held a slim lead, but that was the last lead NKU held for a long time as it went the next three minutes scoreless. The Phoenix took advantage as LeBron Thomas took his talents coast to coast to cap off a personal 4-0 run.
An impressive alley-oop stopped the Green Bay run, but not for long. The home team went on another scoreless stretch, this time for two minutes. CJ O’Hara connected on a pair of shots and Marcus Hall drained a triple to push the lead to the largest of the night at 13. NKU head coach Darrin Horn said the slow start is not as similar to the one in the last meeting with Green Bay due to different expectations given the circumstances in regard to injuries.
“Our slow start tonight was because we have a bunch of guys playing in positions and situations that they don’t play in. We’re a MASH unit out there. The challenge when guys are out is not just missing what they do,” Horn said.
NKU closed the half strong as Vukasin Todorovic was the only Phoenix player to muster points in the closing stretch. Dozier and Donovan Oday combined for 10 points as they helped cut the deficit down to 35-31 heading into the break. Oday and Dozier combined for 23 of those 31 points. Green Bay shot 46% in the opening half while Northern Kentucky only shot 35% overall and 6-21 from deep.
The visiting team recaptured some momentum with a 7-1 run to start the second half that put them back up double digits and forced an NKU timeout. That run would be answered with a poster dunk from Donovan Oday that sparked an 8-2 run that was capped off with back to back corner threes from Dozier and Elliot to bring the Norse back within four. The game would stay within single digits for the rest of the game.
NKU stayed within striking distance and fought all the way back to take a 64-63 lead on Elliot free throws, the first lead since the Norse also held a one point lead at 16-15. NKU pushed the lead out to five and had a chance to ice the game away after O’Hara split a pair of free throws with Green Bay still down three, but the loose rebound was lost out of bounds by the Norse and Green Bay took full advantage with a Marcus Hall three that sent the game to overtime.
The opening minutes of the overtime period were filled with free throws and another poster dunk for NKU, this time from Dozier which sent the crowd into a frenzy. They were quickly quieted down with a Caden Wilkins triple that put the Phoenix up five with just two minutes left. Northern Kentucky responded again with consecutive threes to take a one point advantage. Wilkins sunk another huge three and Oday evened the game up again after that with free throws.
That led to the final possession of the first overtime. It seemed destined for a second overtime before a defensive miscommunication for NKU led to an open deep three for Preston Ruedinger, which found the bottom of the net with under a second left. The Norse were unable to get a shot attempt up after that and the fifth-straight game was lost for Northern Kentucky.
Northern Kentucky had every chance to win despite shooting 12-36 from range and 14-22 from the charity stripe. Horn mentioned that with so many injuries, Dan Gherezgher struggling, shooting 1-9 and racking up four turnovers only made it tougher. Those injuries led to obvious depth concerns for NKU, especially on the bench. Elliot had 11 of the 15 bench points on the night.
Not securing the final rebound in regulation wasn’t the only rebounding struggle as NKU allowed 19 second chance points. There was an apparent lack of joint scoring effort as four players accounted for 72 of the 84 total points of the night, two of those being Wells and Elliot, who were both coming off injuries.
With this loss, NKU falls to 14-11 and 6-8 in the Horizon League, making the Norse a bottom four team in the standings. They will look to end the losing streak on Saturday as they welcome Milwaukee for their homecoming game. The game is set to tipoff at 5 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.
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