By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
For NKU Coach Darrin Horn, Monday at the Indiana Famers Coliseum in the Horizon Conference Tournament was the second of Horn’s “Three Days in March.”
NKU Coach Dan Horn. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
And it was going NKU’s way, up by as many as 15 points – 36-21 in the first half – and hanging on, 38-31, at intermission. Despite being down two injured starters – one out for the season and one barely able to run in the 14 minutes he played along with one backup post player who had left the team, it looked like NKU might make its third straight Horizon championship game.
But in the second half, it showed as NKU ran out of gas as a more physical Milwaukee team — 10 players deep — just pushed NKU around inside, outrebounding the Norse, 50-28, on the way to an 82-75 win after a 51-37 second half.
And that was despite NKU senior Trey Robinson’s career-high 33 points on 11-of-19 shooting with nine rebounds, three three-pointers and two steals.
“Without Trey Robinson tonight, this game isn’t close,” Horn told the NKU radio network about a player who’s gone through Senior Night but still has a season of eligibility left.
NKU’s Trey Robinson with a career-igh 33 poins against Milwaukee Monday (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
But with all-time NKU career scoring leader Marques Warrick going through one of his worst-ever shooting games (two of 16 from the field and no three-pointers) for four points, after scoring 74 the previous two games, this was too hard a second-half climb as Milwaukee’s Panthers went on an 18-4 run to completely flip the script after the two teams split in the regular season.
That’s because Milwaukee had two stars step up in that decisive second half. ESPN’s Player of the Game, 6-foot-10 Faizon Fields, stepped up with 16 points and 16 rebounds.
And he had plenty of company as BJ Freeman, the Horizon League’s leading scorer, after a poor-shooting five-point first half, fired in 22 in the second as the Panthers kept taking the ball inside on dribble-drives with NKU having no rim protectors.
“I’m unbelievably proud of these kids with the adversity we had this year,” Horn said. NKU fans could be proud of the Norse the way they played the first half and more.
“We defended really well,” Horn said of “the first 25 minutes. Then the best player stepped up.” Or two of them.
As for NKU’s 39.1 percent (29 of 67) shooting from the field and Warrick’s two of 16, was it a case of him not getting good looks.
Tough shooting night for NKU’s all-time leading scorer Marques Warrick. (Photo by Dale Dawn/NKyTribune)
“He got good looks,” Horn said of NKU’s 2,000-point-plus scorer. They just didn’t go down.
And on defense, “We were just not aggressive,” Horn said of the second-half swoon that allowed Milwaukee to shoot 17 of 31 (54.8 percent) from the field. Mostly because the Panthers were able to take the ball to the basket.
Grad student Michael Bradley scored 14 points with a game-high nine assists in his final game for NKU while sophomore LJ Wells added 16.
Milwaukee (20-14) advances to Tuesday’s championship game against No. 1 seed Oakland (7 p.m., ESPN2).
SCORING SUMMARY
MILWAUKEE 31 51—82
NORTHERN KENTUCKY 38 37–75
MILWAUKEE (20-14); Pullian 2-3 1-2 5-6 10, Pratt 3-11 1-4 0-0 7, Freeman 9-24 1-6 8-12 27, Fields 7-12 0-0 2-3 16, Ham 1-1 1-1 2-2 5, Jamison 2-4 0-1 4-5 8, Davis 1-1 1-1 0-0 3, Wilson 1-3 0-0 0-2 2, Franklin 1-1 0-0 0-0 2, Duffy 1-1 0-0 0-0 2; TOTALS: 28-61 5-15 21-30 82.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY: Robinson 11-19 3-5 8-9 33, Warrick 2-16 0-5 0-0 4, Wells 7-13 1-3 0-2 15, Pettus 3-10 1-5 0-0 7, Bradley 4-8 4-6 2-2 14, Israel 0-2 0-2 0-0 0, Itejere 0-1 0-0 2-2 2; TOTALS: 27-69 9-26 12-15 75.
