By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Sure, the basketball is tough. But not as tough as the January weather for NKU and Thomas More now that both are fully into conference scheduling as the southern guys in their leagues.
OK, TMU is only the third-most southern school in their new 14-team NCAA Division II Great Midwest Athletic Conference, which if you do the math that leaves 11 north of here.
And NKU, in the 11-team Great Lakes-centric Horizon League, is the southernmost outpost in the NCAA mid-major Horizon. So what’s the problem, you ask.
Geography is. It’s the middle of the winter and all your trips – TMU’s to Owensboro for Kentucky Wesleyan and Nashville for Trevecca Nazarene excepted – are headed north. Where the wind is brisker. And the temperature gauges are lower. And the snow is deeper.
How are Lake Erie and Lake Michigan this time of year, guys? Getting in any sightseeing in Detroit or Cleveland, North Canton or Green Bay? How about Milwaukee, Youngstown or Pittsburgh? And yeah, it’s going to be minus-3 in the next week in Green Bay. But it’s barely snowing right now. So suck it up, buttercup.
NKU’s Keeyan Itegere (Photo provided)
This is college basketball. And you’re on the road.
NKU MEN: FIVE OF SIX ON THE ROAD
For an NKU team in the midst of a five-road-games-in-six-games stretch despite the Horizon’s promise not to do that anymore to the 8-8 Norse, the preseason pick to win it all again and make it to the NCAA tournament for the fifth time in the last eight years, this is hardly news.
But the Norse’s 2-7 road record is the latest news after dropping an 88-85 overtime game Sunday at Cleveland State to fall to 3-2 in the conference and in a four-way tie for fifth, just a game behind 4-1 Purdue-Ft. Wayne. And with the same message that Coach Darrin Horn as preached since his arrival nearly five years ago.
In the end, it’s all about three days in March, Horn says. Everything else in a one-bid conference like the Horizon is essentially preseason.
And those tournament games will be in Indianapolis at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum where by March, things have started to thaw out and where NKU has at least won a game this year, beating IUPUI there in December.
With Sam Vinson out for the season with an ACL injury, Sunday’s Cleveland State loss in overtime was one of those games where NKU probably needed one more player in the game with the 11-6 Vikings. Marques Warrick scored a season-high 30 points with a remarkable banked-in buzzer-beating three to send the game into overtime.
Point guard Michael Bradley showed his season-long improvement with a season-high 15 points and four assists, with a pair of threes. Six-foot-nine Keeyan Itejere followed his big game in the Youngstown State win Thursday with 14 points, eight rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Trey Robinson just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. And LJ Wells scored seven points to go with a game-high-tying nine rebounds.
Thomas More’s Nathan Dudukovich (Photo provided)
But it wasn’t quite enough. And now Northern heads west for Wednesday’s 7 p.m. game at Xavier-beating Oakland (9-8, 4-2) and then on to Detroit for Saturday’s 1 p.m. game at winless Detroit Mercy (0-17, 0-6).
THOMAS MORE MEN: JUST ONE MORE ON ROAD THIS WEEK
With three of their four straight road games behind them, and a 2-1 road record in this stretch, the TMU men (10-5) head to Findlay (4-8, 1-3) Thursday and then come back home after wins at Ohio Dominican (61-50) and Hillsdale, Mich. (71-70) to host Hillsdale (9-4, 3-2) in a 3 p.m. Connor Center rematch Saturday.
With a 5-2 league record, the Saints are No. 3 in the G-MAC behind only Trevecca Nazarene (5-0) and Cedarville (5-1). TMU has lost both games to Cedarville but has a pair to play with Trevecca.
In Saturday’s 73-54 loss at Cedarville (10-5), TMU simply could not shoot the ball. Only senior Reid Jolly, with 18 points, and freshman Nathan Dudukovich, with 13, managed double figures as the Saints hit on just 21 of 57 (36.8 percent) from the field and six of 21 (28.6 percent) from three-point range.
TMU WOMEN HOLDING AT NO. 4 IN G-MAC
Thomas More’s Alex Smith (Photo provided)
The women’s 14-team G-MAC has a crowded field at the top with the nation’s No. 1 Ashland 5-0 in league play, 12-1 overall, No. 1. Ursuline is No. 2 at 5-1 with Northwood 4-1 at No. 3 and TMU next at 5-2.
After winning 65-55 at Hillsdale Saturday, the TMU women (9-5 overall) join the men for Thursday’s doubleheader at Findlay then return home for a Saturday G-MAC doubleheader (1 p.m.) with the men against Hillsdale (6-7, 2-3).
In the win over Hillsdale, Alex Smith led the way for TMU with 21 points, the only Saint in double figures. Next in line were Maggie Jones with nine points and Rachel Martin with eight. Trailing 46-44 after three quarters, TMU won the final period, 21-9, for the double-digit win.
LOSING STREAK HITS SIX FOR NORSE WOMEN
Falling to 2-12 with just one win in their last 10, the NKU women hit the road Sunday for one more away game, at IUPUI, before returning for a pair at Truist Arena next week – against Robert Morris Wednesday (7 p.m.) and Wright State Saturday (4 p.m.).
In a 75-67 home loss Sunday to Milwaukee, NKU put four players into double figures but it wasn’t enough. Kailee Davis, with 16 points and five assists led the way. Carter McCray scored 13 with nine rebounds and three steals. Khamari Mitchell-Steen scored 11 with seven rebounds, three assists and four steals and Allison Basye scored 11.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.
