By Dan Weber NKyTribune sports reporter
The West Coast trips haven’t gotten any easier for the NKU Norse with a 92-56 pasting Thursday night at Saint Mary’s in Moraga, Calif. It’s the second West Coast trip – and step up in class — for NKU this season with an earlier 75-67 loss at Washington for the 7-6 Norse who are on Christmas break until a Horizon League game Dec. 29 at Purdue-Ft. Wayne. NKU is 2-0 in the conference.
Road games at Power Five programs haven’t been all that kind to NKU as they lost 90-66 at Cincinnati as well. At home, NKU is 5-1 and now gets to look at concentrating on a conference schedule which the Norse have used to move on to the NCAA Tournament in March four of the last seven seasons.
After maybe their best game of the season, an 85-75 win at Eastern Kentucky, the Norse withered in the second half, outscored by 54-27, by Saint Mary’s after trailing 38-29 at halftime. Marques Warrick and Trey Robinson each had 14 points to lead NKU at Saint Mary’s. Michael Bradley scored 10 with freshman Jeremiah Israel, the Lloyd Memorial product who has been earning Freshman of the Week honors in the Horizon League, adding eight.
That Sam Vinson played just 15 minutes with a single field goal and three assists certainly didn’t help the Norse in this game. Neither did 38.0 percent shooting (19 of 50) shooting from the field. Saint Mary’s hit 34 of 62 from the field (54.8 percent).
The EKU road win was especially important for the Norse who had lost their first three games this season against mid-majors – Middle Tennessee (74-57) and Illinois State (62-59) on the road and Akron giving up a 77-76 dunk at the buzzer for the lone home loss this year.
Purdue-Ft. Wayne (11-2, 2-0) looks to be a tough challenge for NKU to get the second half of the season started.
THOMAS MORE HEADS INTO HOLIDAYS OFF BIG DEFENSIVE EFFORT
With a 62-49 home win over Miami U. (Hamilton), the Saints men improved to 8-4 (3-1 in the Great Midwest Conference) at the holiday break after Saturday’s 71-60 G-MAC road win at Walsh. TMU will return to action Saturday, Dec. 30, at Ohio Dominican (1 p.m.) against a 3-7 (0-3 G-MAC) Panther team.
In the Miami (Hamilton) game, Wyatt Vieth led the Saints with 16 points while Reid Jolly scored 10 with Kyle Ross pulling down 10 rebounds. In the low-scoring game, TMU hit 10 three-pointers for 30 of their 62 points.
After the first 12 games, grad student Jolly leads the Saints in scoring with 14.9 points a game. He’s followed by point guard Jacob Jones’ 10.9 points a game while freshman wing Nathan Dudukovich is scoring for 10.8 points a game. Jones also leads the team in assists with 57 (4.8 a game). Jolly’s 6.5 rebounds a game top TMU while Ross averages 5.3.
SAINTS WOMEN RUN INTO A BUZZSAW AT NO. 1 GRAND VALLEY STATE
For years in the NAIA and before that, the NCAA’s Division III, the Thomas More women were on the top of the heap, often No. 1 in the nation with three national titles to show for it. But now in their first year in the NCAA’s Division II, the Saints went on the road to Allendale, Mich., to face a Division II No. 1 Grand Valley State team whose ranking seems very much on the money.
The 85-36 Grand Valley win last Tuesday was unlike any loss the Saints (7-5, 3-2 G-MAC) have been associated with in more than a decade although TMU did survive with a 3-1 record in its four-games-in-six-days gauntlet as it heads into its NCAA Division II mandatory holiday break.
Not much reason to recap the Grand Valley game in which TMU shot about as badly as the Saints have ever shot it, hitting just 28 percent (14 of 50) from the field, 21.7 percent from three-point range (5-23) while making a mere three free throws (out of four). Maggie Jones led TMU with six points.
UP NEXT: TMU will host G-MAC rival Kentucky Wesleyan Dec. 30 at 1 p.m. at the Connor Convocation Center.
NKU WOMEN GET A MUCH-NEEDED BREAK
With losses in five of their last six games, the NKU women fell to 2-6 (0-1 Horizon League) with a crushing 83-42 loss Wednesday at Middle Tennessee. It’s their fourth straight loss on the road for the Norse women who return to action with a pair of Horizon League road contests Dec. 29 at Oakland (Mich.) and Jan. 1 at Detroit Mercy.
Kalissa Lacy led NKU in scoring in the Middle Tennessee game with 13 points, the only Norse player in double figures for an NKU team that hit just 29.2 percent (14 of 48) from the field against the Blue Raiders. For the season, Khamari Mitchell-Steen, with 14.6 points a game leads the Norse, followed by Carter McCray’s 12.4 ppg and Macey Blevins’ 11.4.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com . Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.