The two-game trip to Tennessee produced no wins for the Northern Kentucky women’s basketball team as the host Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders dominated the Norse 83-42 on Wednesday.
The Blue Raiders outrebounded the Norse, 44-33 and wound up taking 19 more shots than Northern Kentucky. The Blue Raiders shot 43% from the field and held the Norse to 29%.
Turnovers also hurt the Norse again. They turned it over 20 times while MTSU turned it over just eight times.
The Norse (2-8) saw nine different players score. Kalissa Lacy started and led the Norse with 13 and Carter McCray posted a near double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.
MTSU (10-3) put three players in double figures. Savannah Wheeler led the way with 34 points and Jalynn Gregory scored 16. Iulla Grabovskaia recorded a near double-double off the bench with 14 points and nine rebounds for the Blue Raiders.
The Norse came out strong building a 9-2 lead after McCray made a jumper, but MTSU responded outscoring NKU, 19-5 the rest of the quarter to go up 21-14. Lacy made consecutive three-pointers to trim the lead to 21-20 with 8:05 left in the first half, but the Blue Raiders pulled away leading 42-23 at halftime and 61-35 entering the fourth quarter.
Northern Kentucky has nine days off until they get into conference play on Dec. 29 at Oakland.