By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Not an easy way to start a basketball season but for the NKU men, one of those tough mid-major programs most big-time teams would rather avoid, you take what you can get when moving up to play an Atlantic Coast Conference team like Florida State.
You have to head to Tallahassee, Fla., for a season opener Monday knowing that it’s going to be a tough challenge, which it was in something of a defensive struggle.
Florida State 74, NKU 62.
Former longtime UK assistant Leonard Hamilton, now in his 23rd and probably final season, has a Seminole team with 10 newcomers that the FSU fans are high on.
As for an NKU team that fell behind, 43-31 at intermission, then played FSU even the final 20 minutes, the Norse have three starters back – plus the return of senior Sam Vinson from knee surgery that caused him to miss more than half of last season.
But the big news here for NKU was 6-foot-4 grad transfer guard Josh Dilling, an Oshkosh, Wisc., native by way of Northern State University, who fired in 18 points to lead NKU in his 34-minute debut with the Norse.
He was joined by sophomore guard Randall Pettus, who hit for 12 points with seven rebounds.
Vinson added seven points with a pair of rebounds in his return. Trey Robinson with nine rebounds and LJ Wells with eight combined for 17 as NKU outrebounded a bigger FSU team, 35-32. NKU totaled 14 assists on 19 made field goals.
NKU jumped out to an early 10-5 lead but couldn’t hold on as Florida State raced to that 12-point halftime edge. The closest NKU could cut that deficit to was 10 the rest of the way.
For the game, NKU shot 19 of 49 (38.8 percent) from the field while hitting on just seven of 28 (25 percent) from three-point range. Florida State hit on 28 of 63 (44.4 percent) but just four of 22 on three-point attempts. FSU scored 17 fast-break points to NKU’s four with 44 points in the paint to NKU’s 16 and 22 points off turnovers to NKU’s 12.
Things don’t get easier for NKU in the next game as the Norse travel to West Lafayette, Ind., and No. 14 Purdue, the favorite to win the Big Ten in a 7 p.m. Friday game.
SCORING SUMMARY
NORTHERN KENTUCKY (0-1) 31 31—62
FLORIDA STATE (1-0) 43 31—74
NORTHERN KENTUCKY (62): Dilling 5-14 2-11 6-6 18, Itejere 3-5 0-0 2-4 8, Vinson 3-7 1-3 0-0 7, Robinson 2-8 1-4 0-2 5, Gherezgher 1-4 0-1 1-2 3, Pettus 2-7 2-7 6-7 12, Pivorius 2-3 1-2 0-0 5, Wells 1-1 0-0 2-2 4, Darbyshire 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Tchilombo 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, TOTALS: 19-49 7-28 17-23 62.
FLORIDA STATE (74): Watkins 8-17 1-5 0-0 17, Bowen 5-9 0-2 7-7 17, Jackson 2-5 0-1 2-2 6, Holt 1-1 0-0 0-0 2, Ewin 0-6 0-0 0-2 0, Deng 3-7 3-6 0-0 9, Davis 3-8 0-5 2-2 8, Austin 2-5 0-3 1-2 5, Maluk 2-2 0-0 1-1 5, Swinton 1-2 0-0 1-2 3, Nitu 1-1 0-0 0-0 2: TOTALS 28-63 4-22 14-18 74.