By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Sure, NKU’s Norse have been battling back in recent weeks, trying to get themselves in position for the Horizon Conference postseason tourney. No surprise there, it’s a place that has proven to be a pathway to two NCAA Tournament berths the last five years in March.
But there’s one significant change veteran NKU players are expecting after getting themselves within a game of .500 with a 71-67 Truist Arena win over IU-Indy Sunday afternoon.
“Coach (Darrin Horn) won’t be able to say ‘It’s three games in March,’ junior Sam Vinson said of the sixth-year NKU coach’s favorite catch-phrase, “it’s four games in March or . . . however many games that is.”
NKU can only hope it’s four games in March as the Norse will to have to win a pair of postseason games – one at home on Tuesday, March 4, against a lower-seeded Horizon team and then one on the road March 6 against a higher-seeded team in the quarterfinals.
That’s a big change from just the one home game as usual with NKU as a top three team in order to reach Indianapolis for the four-team semifinals (March 10-11) that have treated NKU so well.
“We are looking ahead,” grad transfer Josh Dilling, after his NKU-high 28 points on some serious second-half three-point shooting, admitted. It’s hard not to this time of year.
Not that that’s a bad thing, Horn says, “We’ve been through this multiple times . . . and won a lot of games this time of year.”
Now they’ll just have to win one more – after this week, that is.
At 14-15 (9-9 in the Horizon), NKU has another week of regular season “Horizon scheduling” is how Horn quietly describes it with a shake of his head, with a road game at higher-seeded Purdue-Ft. Wayne (19-10, 12-6 Horizon) Thursday – a PFW team that beat NKU in overtime at Truist and did not have to play a Sunday game. And then NKU will head home for a Saturday season finale against another higher-seeded team – Youngstown State (19-10, 13-6 Horizon).
Horn likes the way this is trending for an NKU team, after losing career scoring leader Marques Warrick his final season to the big bucks NIL dollars from SEC team Missouri.
Sunday, it was the lefty Dilling doing the scoring, drilling one three after another – seven of 15 in all – down the stretch in the second half when Indy’s Jaguars were trying to get back in it.
“The way we were pushing the offense, even if it’s a quick three, we didn’t have to set up out offense,” Dilling said of the transition game made possible by a defensive stop, turnover or a rebound.
“For the second game in a row and most of the last seven, we’re turning the corner,” Horn said. “One of the reasons we’re doing better is we’re playing better defense.”
After shooting just 35.1 percent (13 of 37) from the field in a first half highlighted by missed point-blank shots and three-pointers that would curl halfway down into the net and pop out, those misses didn’t happen as much in a second half when NKU limited Indy to 38.7 percent (12-31).
And for the Trojans, those good looks started falling after a first half when it took the Norse 20 three-point attempts to make five, missing 11 of their first 12. In the second half, NKU made five of 10.
But the good news for the Norse here, Horn said, was that a difficult start on offense – “We missed some really easy ones . . . but our guys didn’t get rattled by it as they would have three weeks ago.”
And that’s the result of “a greater level of confidence,” Horn says, allowing them to come back for a 9-0 run to take the lead after trailing 18-11 and then coming out of intermission with a 13-4 run to take a 12-point lead NKU would not relinquish.
Thanks to Dilling’s shooting and the work of Dan Gherengher, NKU’s second transfer this year from the state of Wisconsin, who scored 15 points with seven rebounds and four assists putting his speed to good use. Trey Robinson needed 18 shots to get there but the 6-7 grad student added 13 points with eight rebounds. Vinson matched those eight rebounds with a team-high five assists although scoring just five points.
“If you asked the coaches in our league, he’s one of the three or four players who doesn’t have to score to affect the game,” Horn said, “the kid’s a winner.”
On Sunday, he was.
SCORING SUMMARY
IU INDY 31 36—67
N. KENTUCKY 34 37—71
IU Indy (9-20, 5-13 Horizon): Craig 9-19 3-9 1-1 22, Zilinskas 3-8 2-6 7-7 15, Millender 4-10 4-8 0-0 12, Walker 4-11 1-4 0-0 9, Goode 2-5 0-1 2-2 6, Rutland 1-2 0-0 0-0 2, Brown 0-1 0-0 1-2 1, Garner 0-1 0-0 0-0 0, Hannah 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS 23-57 10-28 11-12 67.
Northern Kentucky (14-15, 9-9 Horizon): Dilling 10-18 7-15 1-1 28, Gherezgher 6-13 3-7 0-0 15, Robinson 6-18 0-2 1-2 13, Vinson 2-6 0-3 1-3 5, Itejere 2-3 0-0 0-0 4, Wells 2-3 0-1 2-4 6, Pivorius 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Pettus 0-2 0-2 0-0 0; TOTALS: 28-63 10-30 5-10 71.
