By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Maybe it was the road trip that just wouldn’t end. Two games in Tennessee then a quick home game against Cumberlands before a jaunt to Central Michigan for a big win and then back home, all in the last 10 days for the Northern Kentucky Norse.
But there was no home when they got back to Highland Heights last Thursday. Or more specifically, “No gym,” Coach Darrin Horn said as NKU athletics was hosting the Horizon Conference volleyball tournament three days last weekend. “We don’t have a second gym to practice in,” Horn said, as much as he was happy about NKU getting to host volleyball.
So that could explain why the Norse seemed to be semi-sleepwalking the first half against a struggling Eastern Kentucky team, 1-4 coming into Truist Arena and down a couple of starters. NKU was still getting used to being back on the Truist Arena court.
But the good news for NKU, which improved to 4-2 Monday, is that there are two halves in basketball. And after trailing 35-33 at intermission, the Norse got themselves in gear with a 49-point second half that saw a much better defensive and rebounding effort rewarded with much more scoring and an 82-71 win.
Not so much a case of the shots starting to fall but the rebounds and the defensive takeaways providing the speed-things-up Norse so many better looks at the basket. And letting them put four players in double figures, but better than that, as Horn noted: “Four with 14 or more points.”
Senior guard Dan Gherezgher, playing the way he finished up last season, led NKU with 19 points including five for nine from three-point range, many on open looks as he pulled up on the break.
Donovan Oday, the Cal State-Fullerton transfer came off the bench again for 18 points in 26 minutes. The guy can score the ball no matter when he gets his shot, which he will, even when playing with four fouls. “Coach was telling me to stay disciplined,” he said, “I knew I had to.”
Kael Robinson, the 6-foot-7 grad student from New Zealand, scrapped around, inside and out as he always seems to do, scoring 17 points with a trio of threes.
And showing up big for the second-half party was 6-8 senior LJ Wells, who finished with 14 points – 12 after intermission, and 11 rebounds, seven in the second half.
The difference? “Rebounding,” Horn said. When LJ gets it going with his rebounding, everything else comes along. “He’s such a smart player,” Horn says. “And three steals. He’s Top 20 in the nation in steals.”
“Get the ball and the points will come,” LJ said. “Anybody on this team can score double digits.”
Which is the key, Horn said, and the difference in this NKU team from the ones in recent years who had that single big scorer like Marques Warrick. “It’s no one guy scoring, our strength is our whole team scoring,” Horn says.
But Horn didn’t talk only about the Norse. He opened the postgame with praise for eight-year EKU Coach A.W. Hamilton and his team, fighting through some tough times: “I have so much respect for Eastern Kentucky,’ Horn said, “they’re down several guys and came in here and competed their butts off.”
NKU returns for the second game in a four-game homestand Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, with a 2 p.m. afternoon tip against Wofford. Then it’s Boston U. on Saturday afternoon at 1 followed by the opening game in the Horizon Conference, Wednesday, Dec. 3, against Cleveland State.
Sam Vinson update: Horn also talked about the possibility of last year’s senior captain Sam Vinson, who lost major parts of two seasons with a knee injury at a time when the NCAA is granting players fifth and sixth years of eligibility with no obviously consistent rationale, returning for a final season.
“It’s not dead yet, it’s still alive,” Horn said of Vinson’s legal challenge following his NCAA appeal turn-down. Vinson and his lawyer will have a hearing Dec. 2 for an injunction, according to Horn. “We’re saying our prayers.”
BOX SCORE
EASTERN KENTUCKY 35 36—71
NORTHERN KENTUCKY 33 49–82
EASTERN KENTUCKY
Cranford 6-12 3-8 3-5 18, Williams 3-1318 0-2 7, Paul 3-5 0-0 0-3 6, Holt 1-8 1-6 2-2 5, Ball 0-4 0-3 0-0 0, Buttry 6-9 3-5 5-5 20, Harris 6-8 1-3 0-0 13, White 0-1 0-0 2-2 2, Miles 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 25-60 9-33 12-19 71.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY
Gherezgher 7-14 5-9 0-0 19, Robinson 7-12 3-5 0-0 17, Wells 6-7 0-1 2-2 14, Dozier 2-6 0-4 4-6 8, Oday 4-7 2-4 8-9 18, Rakotonanahary 1-1 0-0 2-2 4, Archer 0-0 0-0 2-2 2, Darbyshire 0-2 0-2 0-0 0, Nelson 0-2 0-1 0-0 0; TOTALS: 27-59 10-30 18-21 82.
Attendance: 2,346