By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
No way NKU was going to win this one. Not down 16 to a revenge-minded 10-win Youngstown State team that was radaring three-pointers from what looked like the first row at Truist Arena Thursday.
The 7-7 Norse, home for a rare game in Highland Heights these days before taking off for another three Horizon League games this weekend, were going to have to figure some things out against a team hitting 60 percent of its threes – nine of 15 in the first half alone.
Like how do the Norse play without junior do-everything, 37-minutes-a-game Sam Vinson, the Highlands alum who is the centerpiece of everything NKU does on offense.
And now here he was, out for the season with an ACL injury from the Saint Mary’s game right before Christmas, coaching up his teammates and encouraging them. But they were on their own now. If NKU was going to live up to their preseason as the team to win the Horizon League, this was going to take some doing.
Next man up, was the word along the NKU bench. Only that wasn’t the way this went.
Next men up was more like it as a young Norse team roared back from that 16-point first-half deficit to catch, pass and hold off the all-senior Penguins’ lineup with an aggressive offense and even more aggressive defense for a 79-76 win that had the 3,105 fans on their feet and making the kind of noise not heard here since last season’s upset of Cincinnati.
Or did a tough schedule that had NKU traveling twice to the West Coast (to Washington as well as Saint Mary’s), getting busted in Cincinnati’s best game there, losing on the road to good mid-majors Middle Tennessee and Illinois State, and then stumble badly in its last game – and first conference loss – in falling to Purdue-Ft. Wayne, 73-60, actually toughen them up for this moment?
“For sure,” said senior Marques Warrick, after his 29-point performance topped with a game-winning three with 43.3 seconds left to give NKU its longest lead, 77-74. When they “got down like in the first half,” well, they didn’t get down mentally. “We were able to keep our composure,” the man they call “Quez,” said.
It’s hard to say who did that next best for the Norse. How about 6-foot-9 Marquette sophomore transfer Keeyan Itejere who hit on eight of 10 from the field for 19 points with nine rebounds and three blocks.
But the athletic North Carolina native did more than that with his explosive play at the basket. Did more than the couple of dozen NKU cheerleaders and dance teamers to bring the crowd to its feet the second half with his dunks off lobs, dunks in traffic and dunks through defenders trying to muscle him.
That’s what has been expected of him, the explosive-leaping Itejere said. That’s why he’s here.
But the timing with his guards on his rolls to the basket and his own ability “to play through contact,” is a work that’s more than just in progress.
Don’t stop there, NKU Coach Darrin Horn said. Check out grad transfer Michael Bradley’s line in the scorebook. “Thirty-eight minutes (actually 38 ½) with 11 assists and no turnovers,” Horn said. You’ll have to do a lot of looking to find another one like that.
Then there’s 6-8 sophomore L.J. Wells, who knocked down 12 points on perfect four-for-four shooting with three rebounds and a steal in his 27:47. “His best game as a Norse,” Horn said with a big smile.
But not a surprise for Wells, speaking for “the young guys . . . that’s how we practiced all week.”
In his first career start, Lloyd Memorial’s Jeremiah Israel, got the nod “because of all the switching they do,” Horn said of the 6-3 freshman who scored five points with six rebounds and a block in his 21:47 in the game.“I was really looking forward to it,” he said of the chance to start. “It was about competing and continuing to do the little things,” said Israel, who wasn’t the only freshman from Northern Kentucky with his own cheering section on the floor.
Gabe Dynes, the 7-foot-3 Simon Kenton alum from Independence, was the first sub – and only non-senior on the floor – for the Penguins with his 17:44 in the game, four points on two-for-three shooting with three rebounds and two blocks. At 190 pounds, he has some work to do to be able to hold his own down low. But he’s a factor and a shot-alterer with that wingspan.
But Dynes wasn’t the only Penguin with Northern Kentucky experience. Bryson Langdon, out of Chicago after two seasons at NKU finishing the year before last, started at point guard and scored 10 points. Seven-foot Imanuel Zorgvol, who transferred from NKU after last season, had two points on a giant dunk before the halftime buzzer.
If there was a difference that mattered most in this one, it was how NKU out-scrapped Youngstown State with 11 steals to just four and limited their turnovers to a mere seven – and just one in the second half – to YSU’s 15.
“That was a good response by our guys,” Horn said, downplaying his role here, “they did it on their own.”
As for Warrick, “that’s how you want your senior Player-of-the-Year candidate to play,” Horn said of Lexington native’s nine-of-16 shooting (five of 10 from three), perfect six of six from the free throw line with three assists and three steals.
And how you want the rest of your team to play, too.
SCORING SUMMARY
YSU 45 31—76
NKU 36 43—79
YOUNGSTOWN STATE (10-5, 2-2 Horizon League): Reid 3 1 0 7, Burns 5 2 2 14, Rush 6-4-3-19, Thompson 3 2 2 10, Langdon 4 2 0 10, Lovelace 0 0 2 2, Dynes 2 0 0 4, Bates 2 2 2 8, Zorgvol 1 0 0 2; TOTALS: 26-54 13-29 11-14 76.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY (8-7, 3-1 Horizon): Itejere 8 0 3 19, Robinson 1 0 0 2, Warrick 9 5 6 29, Israel 2 0 1 5, Bradley 3 1 2 9, Wells 4 0 4 12, Meyer 0 0 0 0, Pettus 1 0 0 3, Tchilombo 0 0 0 0; TOTALS: 28-62 8-21 15-19 79.
