The Northern Kentucky University women’s basketball team hosted its first Atlantic Sun Championship contest on Friday night at Regents Hall and it used a stalwart-defensive effort to post its first Division I conference tournament victory over USC Upstate behind major input from seniors Melody Doss and Kaitlyn Gerrety.
The Norse will now head to Stetson on March 11 to take on the Hatters in the semifinals of the A-Sun Championship.
Doss led all scorers with 14 points and four rebounds and Gerrety chipped in 13 points and seven boards to lead NKU in rebounds.
Northern Kentucky (19-12, 8-6 A-Sun) finished the game shooting 21-for-47 (36.8 percent), including 5-for-24 (20.8 percent) from three and 17-for-22 (77.3 percent) from the charity stripe. Doss and Gerrety were aided by Christine Roush’s nine points and six rebounds, as well as Rianna Gayheart with eight assists and six points. The Norse won the rebounding battle, corralling 46 total boards (35 defensive, 11 offensive) versus the Spartans 34 (26 defensive, 8 offensive).
USC Upstate (14-17, 6-8 A-Sun) was led by Brittany Clency with 14 points and three assists. She was helped by Shelby Hicks, who recorded a double-double with 10 points and 12 boards. The Spartans ended the game shooting 16-for-58 (27.6 percent) and 2-for-13 (15.4 percent) beyond the arc. From the line they went 11-for-20 (55.0 percent).
Early turnovers by the Spartans led to a 5-0 Norse run, which included a step-back-three for Doss, to start the game.
On the other end of the court, Travonda Haddock answered with USC Upstate’s first field goal at the 17:41 mark.
A Spartan layup at 16:07 cut NKU’s lead to one, 5-4, but Kasey Uetrecht converted a basket on Northern Kentucky’s next possession to kick start a 6-0 run spanning the next three minutes.
Tough Norse defense led to another scoring drought for the Spartans spanning almost six minutes. The Norse were able to convert on the other end creating a 7-0 run and 18-7 lead.
The Spartans finally broke the scoreless stretch at 6:18 with a layup by Mar’Lisa Braxton, cutting the Norse advantage to 18-9.
A 4-0 run for the Spartans emerged off of Norse turnovers, but Gerrety completed a layup with 1:27 remaining in the frame to halt the spurt and maintain a 22-14 lead.
Free throws on both ends brought the teams to intermission with NKU leading, 24-15.
Stout defense from NKU held USC Upstate to only 6-for-30 (20.0 percent) shooting in the opening half, including 0-for-4 from three. NKU shot 8-for-27 (29.6 percent) and 1-for-10 (10.0 percent) from three.
A triple from Raven Jefferson started the second half for the Spartans, spurring an 8-1 run that closed the NKU lead to two with 14:55 remaining in the game.
The Norse receieved their first field goal at the 14:36 mark on a trey by Doss. A triple from Gayheart followed soon after and extended the Norse lead to 31-25 with 13:34 remaining.
The Spartans closed the gap following a three by Hicks, but a 6-0 run for NKU re-opened the advantage to 11, 38-27, with 8:26 left.
Upstate continued to get a few baskets inside, but the Norse converted on back-to-back possessions from beyond the arc, opening up the inside for Molly Franson to get a layup and push the score to 46-31 with 6:18 left.
The teams went back-and-forth for the next three minutes maintaining the NKU lead. Courtney Roush, Shar’rae Davis and Faith Sanders each tacked on a pair of points that stretched the lead over the closing minutes in NKU’s 64-45 win.