Northern Kentucky basketball regroups from first league loss as the Norse head north
Northern Kentucky basketball continues Horizon League play this weekend.
The men head north for an early-season battle for first place in the Horizon League with a clash against Milwaukee at 8 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 12. Both teams sit atop the conference with a 5-1 mark in Horizon play. The Norse concluded the week and the road trip with a showdown against Green Bay at 7 p.m. EST Saturday, Jan. 14.
NKU is in a tight battle in the standings. Youngstown State, Cleveland State and Oakland are all 4-2 in the league standings.
USA TODAY Sports men's basketball poll:Houston returns to No. 1 after Purdue's run at top ends
NKU basketball plays Milwaukee, Green Bay this weekend
Milwaukee, 11-5 overall, is coming off a weekend road sweep of the two teams that shared the Horizon League regular-season title a year ago in Purdue Fort Wayne and Cleveland State.
B.J. Freeman, a 6-foot-6 wing player, is the reigning Horizon League player of the week after scoring 24 and 15 points in the two wins. He hit key clutch shots in both games and was 8-of-17 from 3-point range. He leads the team with 12.3 points per game. The Panthers have eight players averaging six or more points per game, helping Milwaukee average 78 points per game, outscoring opponents by nearly 10 per game.
Two of Milwaukee’s losses are on the road to power-conference teams, Purdue and Iowa State.
Green Bay is in 10th place in the league at 1-5, and only 2-15 overall. The Phoenix average 60 points per game on offense, led by Cade Meyer at 11.6 per game. The Phoenix are outrebounded by eight per game.
Northern Kentucky learning from loss to Oakland
NKU experienced both sides of thrillers during a home weekend against Oakland and Detroit Mercy.
Friday night, NKU lost 64-63 to Oakland, then turned around and beat Detroit Mercy 78-76 in overtime.
In both games, NKU faced off with two of the most dynamic and explosive scorers in the league, Oakland’s Jalen Moore (14.7 ppg) and Detroit’s Antoine Davis (25.0 ppg.).
Friday night, Moore scored 12 of Oakland’s last 14 points after being held to five until then. He finished with 17, leading the Golden Grizzlies from a seven-point deficit in the final minutes.
Davis scored 29, many of them late, and after losing the lead late in regulation the Norse were able to rally past the Titans.
Davis, a fifth-year senior who took advantage of the free “COVID year,” finished the game with 3,159 career points, sixth in NCAA Division I history. He has 499 career 3-pointers (70 this year, 10 away from the NCAA record. Sunday, he also passed Cincinnati Bearcat all-time great Oscar Robertson in career fields, and now is 17th with 1,055.
Davis has only averaged 21 points per game against the Norse in his career, the lowest figure of any Horizon League team.
NKU lost the Oakland game by not making clutch plays at the end, but turned around and made those plays against Detroit.
Friday night, Moore made three free throws with five seconds left after Norse guard Sam Vinson fouled him on a 3-point shot.
NKU got the ball back. Its leading scorer, Marques Warrick, drove down for a layup but the ball was blocked out of bounds.
With 1.1 to play, Vinson found Warrick behind the arc for an open 3-pointer, which he missed.
Sunday, NKU trailed by three when Vinson drove the lane for an open layup with 11 seconds left. Davis made two free throws to push the NKU deficit back to three, but Vinson found fifth-year senior Trevon Faulkner for a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Horn praised Vinson for making the earlier layup instead of forcing a 3-pointer.
Friday night, NKU head coach Darrin Horn lamented the team’s defense on Moore down the stretch.
“We’re clearly aware what he can do, and we spent 15 minutes in practice the last two days working on it, and we just didn't go out and execute any of it down the stretch. And so from that standpoint, pretty disappointed. And so you know clearly that that's on me to figure out how to make sure our guys understand that better and do it. We fouled him twice on three-pointers. ... we had multiple reps the last two days working on staying down against him on step-backs, not fouling him, not jumping into him, making him make tough shots over us.”
But Horn praised the team for how it won in the end on Sunday.
“Antoine Davis is a dynamic and difficult player to guard in those kinds of situations,” Horn said. “We really completed down the stretch, made the offensive plays when we needed to. And a great pass by Sam to get it to (Faulkner), then in overtime we made the plays when we needed to.”
'We work on that play all the time': Trevon Faulkner's game-tying 3-pointer
On the game-tying play in regulation Sunday, it was redemption for Vinson after the way the Oakland game ended. Faulkner was the second option on the play to Warrick.
“Coach drew up a great play,” said Vinson, a Highlands grad. “Ques came off a screen. I had to be strong with the ball, and when I turned I saw Tre coming around me. We work on that play all the time.”
Oakland was 4-11 coming into the NKU game and Detroit, 6-10. But like most of the Horizon League, they played brutal non-conference schedules with many road games and multiple power-conference foes.
“You don’t want to drop two,” Horn said. “It’s easy to watch a game and ask 'What happened.' What happened is the other team is still playing. They have good players. Our whole deal is can we better at what we need to do, execute the right way, play well at the defensive end and have confidence on the offensive end as we move through the season.”
Fifth-year Trevon Faulkner providing spark off the bench for NKU
Trevon Faulkner is in his fifth year with the Norse, averaging eight points per game this year. He had 1,466 career points, 528 rebounds and 219 assists, and has the team record for career games and starts.
The former Kentucky Mr. Basketball from Mercer County High School, Faulkner has been coming off the bench since early in the season, giving the Norse spark and leadership on both sides of the floor.
“We needed the biggest part of Trevon coming off the bench,” Horn said. “How many fifth-year guys would do that? But Trevon only cares about winning. He can make shots off the bench and provide experience on both ends of the floor.”
Imanuel Zorgvol, L.J. Wells providing Northern Kentucky with depth in the post
NKU entered the season without proven depth in the paint.
Chris Brandon, a 6-foot-8 fifth-year senior, is averaging six points and nine rebounds.
The Norse have been getting improved production from redshirt freshman Imanuel Zorgvol, a 7-foot center from Suriname, and 6-foot-8 freshman L.J. Wells from Wisconsin.
Against Oakland, a bigger physical team, Zorgvol posted 7 rebounds, 4 points and a block, but wasn’t as effective against Detroit and its perimeter-oriented attack.
Wells only played five minutes against Oakland but was more effective against Detroit’s roster.
NKU has nine players who have played most or all of the games, averaging 10 minutes per game.
“We’ve got three bigs who can really play,” Horn said. “(Detroit) wasn’t Iman’s night, they go five-out and they shoot a lot of threes, and it’s harder for him to come out on some of those things. L.J. can do that with the way that he moves. It’s good to see our bench developing confidence. We’re going to shoot the ball well, and we can do a better job on offense because we do attack the paint.”
The men's team hosts Cleveland State at 7 p.m. Jan. 19 and Youngstown State at 6 p.m. Jan. 21.
NKU women travel north
On the women's side, NKU hits the road for contests against Oakland (7 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 13) and Detroit Mercy (1 p.m. EST Sunday, Jan. 15). The Norse enter the week 3-3 in conference play and sit in the middle of the pack in the Horizon.
Lindsey Duvall leads the Horizon League in double-doubles (eight), minutes played (552), free throws made (71) and attempted (95), and points per game (18.0). She averages 9.5 rebounds per game.
Next weekend, the women's team hosts Purdue Fort Wayne at 10 a.m. Jan. 20 and Cleveland State at 2 p.m. Jan. 22.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: NKU learns from first Horizon League loss before heading north
