By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Darrin Horn tried to warn his NKU basketball team that Robert Morris was dangerous as heck coming into Truist Arena Saturday night.
Forget the fact that the 14-win Norse had beaten the Colonials 19 days ago in Pittsburgh, although by just 79-77. And forget that the team that calls itself “Bobby Mo” was coming to Highland Heights off three straight Horizon League losses – two of them close. All that would do is make them even more dangerous, Horn cautioned his guys.
If only he hadn’t been so right. True to Horn’s word, Robert Morris just kept making plays – and shots –in outlasting an NKU tea, 92-89, in overtime. An NKU team that did so many things spectacularly well. But just started too late.
And then hit a bit of a flat spot at the end of the five extra minutes, when NKU’s Donovan Oday, off the bench again and in contention for the nation’s best Sixth Man, opened with his 38th point of the night on a power drive for a two-point lead NKU could not hold on to as the lead changed hands four times in overtime. And that was just one of Oday’s too-many-to-count sensational plays on this night.
“Fantastic,” was the word Horn kept using after the game to describe the play of the Cal State-Fullerton transfer from Arlington, Tex. It almost didn’t seem sufficient for the entire body of Oday’s work on this night. Entering the game barely four minutes after tipoff, his first effort – a three-pointer – gave NKU a 9-7 lead. Oday’s last shot in regulation? How about a terrifically difficult do-or-die three-pointer from somewhere in front of the NKU bench to tie it at 88 with just a tad more than five seconds left.
In writing game stories, the goal is to make readers feel like they were here. Only not to deliver a play-by-play recitation. But there were so many special plays by both teams, so much stuff you may not have ever seen before, even the 2,128 NKU fans left with smiles on their faces and talk of “a great game” on their lips.
“Another one-possession game in the Horizon League,’ said Robert Morris coach Andy Toole. “Another game that was just up and down. Five times you felt like you had it under control, and then five other times you felt like it was slipping away, but I just give so much credit to our guys. That was the hardest we’ve played in about a month. Guys were excited on the bench. Guys were engaged on the bench, and it takes everybody in any way, shape or form to provide some kind of help and that’s what we’ve got to start to continue to sustain over these next 11 games.”
Just as Horn warned. “It’s a maturity issue,” Horn said of his team giving up 10-0 run for a 34-22 deficit with 2:30 left in the first half. Unlike Oday, the nation’s second-leading scorer among non-starters at 18.1 points a game, the rest of the Norse “just were not aggressive enough to shoot it,” Horn said, “we were just passive offensively.” With Oday playing the way he is, call them the passive-aggressive Norse.
Which explains the way the aggressive Colonials outscored NKU from three-point range, 33-18, on 11-of-28 shooting (39.3 percent) to NKU’s six of 26 (23.1 percent). Oday himself had twice as many threes (four of eight) as did NKU’s other eight players who were two for 18.
NKU had flying blocks from behind and delicate lobs for amazing dunks and a pair of back-to-back jams within 30 seconds to come back in the second half on a 15-5 run and the Norse scrambled for eight steals. But they did lose the rebounding battle, 47-37, and missed 10 free throws (27 of 37) in a game where every point was critical.
“The strength of our team is our team,” Horn says. Just not so much this night. While Robert Morris had five players in double figures, led by Ryan Prather Jr.’s 23, NKU had just three.
Oday’s 11 field goals were just four fewer than all five NKU starters who took 44 shots to get there compared to Oday’s 18. LJ Wells had another solid night for NKU with 18 points while Dan Gherezgher added 15.
The loss drops NKU to fifth place at 6-4 in the Horizon League with the next three games on the road including the next game at No. 1 Wright State (7-1) Saturday in Dayton.
SCORING SUMMARY
Robert Morris 41 40 11—92
Northern Kentucky 34 47 8—89
Robert Morris (12-8, 4-5 Horizon): Prather Jr 9-18 4-12 1-2 23, Brown 5-8 2-4 2-4 14, Vargas 1-3 1-1 5-6 8, Wilds 0-3 0-2 0-0 0, Hill 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Chitikoudis 4-8 0-0 6-12 14, Goode 6-13 –1 0-0 12, Smith 3-6 2-4 3-3 11, Livingston 2-6 2-4 2-2 8, Obenjo 0-0 0-0 2-2 2: TOTALS 30-65 11-28 21-31 92.
Northern Kentucky (14-7, 6-4 Horizon): Wells 5-12 0-1 8-12 18, Robinson 1-8 0-3 2-2 4, Gherezgher 5-12 1-8 4-5 15, Elliott 1-5 0-1 1-1 3, Dozier 3-7 1-5 0-0 7, Oday 11-18 4-8 12-16 38, Rakotonanahary 2-3 0-0 0-1 4, Tolliver 0-1 0-0 0-0 0, Darbyshire 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; Tolliver 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 28-66 6-26 27-37 89.