By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
In Northern Kentucky’s march to and through the month of March in recent seasons, the Norse have hung their postseason tournament hopes on defense.
But this year, in winning eight of their last 10 games while opening Horizon Conference postseason play Tuesday with a season-high points total in a 99-75 romp over Detroit Mercy at Truist Arena, the Norse called on their offensive firepower.
That’s unlike five weeks ago when NKU lost to Detroit Mercy while scoring just 57 points. NKU had 57 points with 15:33 left in the game Tuesday. And 97 with 4:25 left when Horn cleared his bench.
There’s a reason this NKU team has been able to do it with this offensive turnaround, Coach Darrin Horn said simply, suppressing a laugh, when asked why: “Great coaching?” he offers up at first.
Then for real, “We’ve got more guys who can do stuff,” Horn says, with the ball in their hands, ticking off the skill sets of one after the other Norse who were playing in either their final home game of the season – or their careers – here.
The victory advances No. 7 seed NKU (17-15, 11-9 Horizon) to Thursday’s quarterfinal 8 p.m. matchup at No. 2 seed Cleveland State. The teams split this season with CSU winning, 76-58, Jan. 15 in Cleveland but with NKU coming back to win, 85-75, a month ago here during an offensive outburst that has Northern averaging 80.3 points a game the last 10 games. Before that, NKU had been scoring just 68.9 points a game.
The first reason this NKU team has a different look? “Dan Gherezgher’s arrival, and not just his scoring,” Horn said of the lightning-quick junior transfer from Michigan Tech, who has speeded up the transition game exponentially. And “taken Sam (Vinson) and Josh (Dilling) off the ball to do what they do so well.”
Like get the ball to the right place, as the senior Vinson did with his game-high six assists on top of nine points, many of those at times when Detroit Mercy was trying to make a run and get back in it after falling behind, 29-15, after 11.30.
Then of course there was the long-range lefty, Josh Dilling, a grad student transfer from Northern State, whose two early threes along with one by Gherezgher, gave NKU a quick jump.
“Balance,” Horn cited, looking at a stat sheet that showed four Norse in double figures with Gherezgher’s 19 leading the way followed by grad student Trey Robinson’s 18 points (with five assists) and the 16 each of Dilling and, off the bench, LJ Wells, who added six rebounds in 24:27.
“Early energy,” Horn said with the 6-foot-8 Wells coming in to give 6-9 senior Keeyan Itejere a breather and then more than that. “A huge boost,” Horn said of Wells, another Wisconsin native, like Dilling and Gherezgher, who has answered the “public challenge” Horn gave him three weeks ago in a big way. “He’s a real X-factor for us.”
As for the playmaking Robinson, “How is he just third-team all-league?” Horn wondered of a guy he thinks might be the best player in the Horizon right now.
“Sound” and “aggressive” and “solid with the ball,” is how Horn described his team’s up-tempo transition offense against “a very good half-court defense.” The way to beat a defense like that is simply by getting down the floor and shooting it before they have time to set up.
Which NKU did, hitting on 32 of 62 field goal attempts (51.6 percent) with 13 of 30 (43.3 percent) from three-point range. NKU also recorded 19 assists to Detroit Mercy’s nine and limited their turnovers to nine compared to UDM’s 17.
And with all that, all that’s come the last four-plus weeks, an NKU team that pulled out of a six-game losing streak only on Feb. 1, is now back to winning its way to and through March.
“We’re built for it,” Horn said, built for “this moment.”
“And we’re fun to watch.”
And just to make sure you heard him, Horn said it again: “We have more guys who can do things” on offense, more than he’s ever had at NKU, and then he clarified that: “It’s a talent and performance issue.”
Now the Norse must win one more playoff game, on the road in Cleveland, to get to Monday’s semifinals in Indianapolis, where they have so much positive history.
SCORING SUMMARY
Detroit Mercy 37 38—75
Northern Kentucky 49 50-99
Detroit Mercy (8-24, 4-16 Horizon): Lovejoy 8-19 0-1 5-5 21, Nadeau 3-10 2-5 3-3 11, Kuac 3-5 1-2 1-2 8, Johnson 2-7 1-4 2-2 7, Kalambay 2-3 0-0 2-3 6, Manciel 5-10 2-5 1-1 13, Okoro 2-2 0-0 2-4 6, Kuiper 1-1 0-0 1-2 3, Rogers 0-0 0-0 0-2 0, Geeter 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Fuchs 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Schorr 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 26-57 6-17 17-24—75.
Northern Kentucky (17-15, 11-9 Horizon): Gherezgher 5-11 3-7 6-6 19, Robinson 5-11 1-3 7-8 18, Dilling 5-11 5-11 1-2 16, Vinson 4-8 0-4 1-2 9, Itejere 3-3 0-0 2-2 8, Wells 5-7 1-1 5-6 16, Pettus 2-3 1-2 0-0 5, Pivorius 2-2 2-2 0-0 6, Rapolis 0-4 0-0 0-0 0, Israel 1-1 0-0 0-0 2, Darbyshire 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Evans 0-1 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 32-62 13-30 22-26 99.