By Don Owen
NKyTribune sports editor
Bryson Langdon is listed as 5-foot-9 on the Northern Kentucky roster, and he is usually the shortest player on the court.
Despite his height, Langdon is a force in the paint with his assortment of floaters, runners and crafty maneuvers off the dribble. And the smallest player on the BB&T Arena court made the biggest play Saturday night in the final seconds against Illinois-Chicago.
With the score tied at 67-all, Langdon dribbled into the lane, gave a slight hesitation fake and floated a short jumper over Maurice Commander for a basket while being fouled. Langdon’s heroics lifted NKU to a 69-67 win over the visiting Flames and capped a two-game weekend sweep for the Norse.
Langdon finished with 12 points — including a pair of baskets in the final 45 seconds — as NKU extended its winning streak to four and improved to 9-8 overall, 7-5 in the Horizon League.
UIC (8-7 overall, 5-5 Horizon League) actually had a chance to take the lead with 23 seconds left on the clock, but Braelen Bridges missed a pair of free throws. Trevon Faulkner rebounded the second miss and NKU called timeout with 12.8 seconds remaining.
What about the final play?
“It was just like a read and react,” Langdon said. “I was looking for (Marques Warrick) for the backdoor, but his man kind of hugged up and there was only like five seconds left. So I just had to go get a bucket.”
NKU head coach Darrin Horn said Langdon made an outstanding read on the final play.
“We’d run a similar action prior to that when Bryson got a good look and was fouled,” Horn said. “We tried to run it again and thought we were going to get (Warrick) on a backdoor. Ques just didn’t really cut or get open on it, didn’t execute it right.
“Give Bryson credit. He had the awareness to get the two feet and get on balance, get the ball to the rim and make a big play.”
After his basket with 1.8 seconds remaining, Langdon missed the free throw, UIC rebounded and called a timeout. Unable to run the baseline, UIC’s Zion Griffin attempted to loft a full-court pass with 1.5 seconds left. The ball, however, hit the BB&T Arena scoreboard at midcourt and NKU gained possession underneath its own basket to seal the win.
Faulkner scored 15 points for NKU, which shot 49.1 percent from the field and won the rebounding battle against the taller Flames by a 32-30 margin. The Norse led by as many as 13 points in the second half, but UIC continued chipping away at the deficit and eventually took a 67-65 advantage when Jamie Ahale buried a 3-pointer with 2:15 left on the clock.
That set the stage for Langdon, a Chicago native who provided the two biggest plays of the evening for NKU. The Norse have now swept consecutive weekend series against Robert Morris and UIC — those four wins coming after enduring a four-game losing streak.
“That’s big,” Langdon said of NKU’s four straight victories. “It feels good to win again, get back back on our feet and gain some confidence with winning. We’re on track now. We just have to keep it going.”
Warrick finished with 11 points, while teammate Adrian Nelson added seven points and eight rebounds. During the past eight games, Nelson has shot 29-for-32 (91 percent) from the field.
Bridges led UIC with 17 points. The Flames shot 48 percent from the field and committed 13 turnovers. Commander added 14 points, and Teyvion Kirk dipped in 10 points.
NKU now holds a 10-3 lead in the all-time series with UIC, including a 6-1 mark at BB&T Arena. The Norse have won the past three meetings with the Flames, including a 71-62 triumph in last season’s Horizon League Tournament championship game.
NKU hits the road next week for Milwaukee for a two-game series against the Panthers. The opener is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday.
Don Owen is sports editor of the Northern Kentucky Tribune. Contact him at don@nkytrib.com and follow him on Twitter at @dontribunesport.