Not a bad way to start – and finish – your Saturday sports day in Crestview Hills with a Thomas More football-basketball doubleheader.
The 4-6 TMU football team gets things going at 1:30 with the final game in the regular season finale at Republic Bank Field against Cumberlands (Ky.) in a Mid-South Conference Senior Day game that completes Coach Chris Norwell’s first season as head coach.
Then at 7 p.m. in the Connor Classic, the NAIA No.2 Thomas More men’s basketball team hosts Kent State-Tuscawaras at the Connor Convocation Center. Good chance to get back in the groove after a closer-than-expected 67-61 win over Miami-Hamilton.
Also a good chance to see if 6-foot-5 junior Reid Jolly, out of Campbell County High, can extend his streak of double-doubles to three.
Meanwhile across Northern Kentucky over in Highland Heights, the NKU men get their first chance to atone for the 79-57 opening loss to Kent State with a 2 p.m. game at Truist Arena against UC Clermont. It’s also a warmup for the next game, also at home, on Wednesday, Nov. 16, against the real Cincinnati Bearcats in a return game for getting to use NKU’s arena while UC’s Fifth-Third Arena was being renovated a couple of years back.
One question here: Has anyone ever played UC Clermont and UC in back-to-back games – or even in the same season?
Some good Northern Kentucky news out of the Norse basketball program this week: One of the two early signings was a Northern Kentuckian, a bit of a rarity for NKU. He’s Jeremiah Israel out of Lloyd Memorial, a 6-3 guard who is ranked the No. 15 prospect in the state according to PrepHoops.com after averaging 14 points a game his junior year. A top student who was named Community Champion by the Kenton County Alliance, Israel will graduate from Lloyd after the first semester.
NKU Coach Darrin Horn calls Israel “an excellent three-point shooter and terrific defender and rebounder” and something else – “a local product… “
The Norse also signed a second 6-3 guard Wednesday, high-scoring Randall Pettus II, who scored 25 points a game at Bessemer City High School in North Carolina.
*** TMU WOMEN’S SOCCER SEASON ENDS: The No. 6 seeded TMU women’s soccer team were ousted from the Mid-South Conference Tournament by No. 2 Tennessee Southern 1-0, with a goal in the 78th minute, to finish the season 12-6-2 and 5-5 in the MSC. Three Saints earned All-Mid-South honors in juniors Ryann Meddings and Sterre Harsveld van der Veen, both named to the second team, and freshman Lauren Laake, named honorable mention.
*** SAINTS EARN ALL MSC SELECTIONS IN VOLLEYBALL: The four All-MSC volleyball selections ties for the most ever for TMU with Asia Ferrando and Sam McClanahan first team, while senior Sawyer Lorentz was selected to the Second Team, and senior Ally Albrinck was an Honorable Mention selection.
Ferrando has 552 digs, second most in the MSC. Georgetown, Ky., native McClanahan has 1,002 assists, also second in the MSC. Senior Lorentz is a second-teamer for the second straight year as an offensive/defensive standout. Albrinck, a second-time honorable mention, is second on the TMU team 241 kills and third with 40 blocks.
TMU is 17-11 and No. 3 seed in this weekend’s MSC Tournament.
*** 2 SAINTS ALL-MSC IN MEN’S SOCCER: Finn Battenstein and Flo Meyer earned second-team All-MSC honors. Meyer, a native of Mulheim, Germany, led the Saints in scoring. Battenstein keyed the defense for a TMU team that finished 10-6-2 and lost in the MSC quarterfinals.
*** WOMEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY FINISHES 2ND IN MSC: With six finishers in the tiop 20, TMU ran behind No. 23 NAIA University of the Cumberlands with these runners, all named All-MSC: Dyllan Hasler (6th, 19:49.4), Savannah Faught (9th, 19:54.5), Jess Sanders (10th, 20:04.8), Caileigh Waters (13th, 20:21.8), Sarah Bertsch (14th, 20:23.6), and Marlee Ross (18th, 20:41.3). Hasler also earned a bid into the NAIA National Championship race on Nov. 18 in Tallahassee, Fla.
