The two teams didn’t know coming in who’d they be facing when the Horizon League conference tournament begins, Northern Kentucky University men’s basketball team traveling up to Michigan to take on Oakland Saturday.
Turns out Saturday was just a warmup in the Norse’s 78-69 victory over the Golden Grizzlies. The two will meet again on Thursday at 7 p.m., at Truist Arena in the quarterfinals, the Norse entering as the No. 4 seed and Oakland the No. 5.
Thursday’s win over Detroit guaranteed the Norse a top four seed and a home game in the quarters. Saturday they had a chance to jump to No. 3 with a win and Milwaukee loss, but the Panthers defeated Cleveland State, 81-72. That gave the Panthers the No. 2 seed, Cleveland State the No. 3 as the Vikings own the tiebreaker over the Norse with two 1-point victories over them in the regular season. Youngstown State clinched the No. 1 with a 93-79 victory over IUPUI.
The Horizon League tournament starts on Tuesday with first round play. No. 6 seed Robert Morris hosts No. 11 IUPUI. No. 7 Wright State hosts Green Bay and No. 8 Detroit Mercy hosts Purdue Fort Wayne. The lowest remaining seeds will then play the highest in Thursday’s quarterfinals, including the Norse-Golden Grizzlies game.
Semifinals are on March 6 in Indianapolis at Indiana Farmers Coliseum, the championship game on March 7 for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Norse closed the regular season winners in four of their last five, the lone loss at Cleveland State by a point on Feb. 19.
Saturday’s win was met with balanced scoring for the Norse, four players hitting double figures led by Sam Vinson’s 19 points. Marques Warrick had 14, Trey Robinson with 12 and Trevon Faulkner adding 10 off the bench.
The Norse trailed 38-29 at the half, but opened the second half with a 22-8 run to take a 51-46 lead. NKU ended up pulling away, building their lead by as much as 15 in the nine-point victory.
NKU was able to overcome 19 turnovers by outrebounding Oakland 33-17 and hitting 15-of-26 from the 3-point line, outscoring Oakland 45-15 from deep. Chris Brandon led the rebounding charge with 11 boards, Robinson just missing a double-double with nine rebounds. Xavier Rhodes dished out eight assists as the Norse had 21 dimes on 28 made field goals.
The Norse got revenge from one of a few games that kept them from getting a higher seed with a blown second half lead. Oakland won the first meeting, 64-63 on a late rally in which they trailed by seven with 1:35 to play.
NKU is looking to get back to the NCAA tournament for the third time in the last six years. They made the dance in 2017 and ’19. They also won the conference tournament in 2020, but the NCAA tournament was canceled due to COVID.
