Carter McCray earned the Horizon League’s Freshman of the Year honors for the Northern Kentucky University women’s basketball team for a big reason.
McCray consistently controls the paint, racking up doubles-doubles and did it again Tuesday with her 16th one of the season with 24 points and 19 rebounds to lift the Norse to a 70-62 over Oakland in the first round of the Horizon League Conference Tournament. Visiting Northern Kentucky won the rubber match this season after the two won split the regular season meetings.
NKU won the rebounding battle 44-28 and doubled up Oakland 20-10 in second chance points. Khamari Mitchell-Steen nearly added a double-double grabbing nine rebounds to go with 12 points.
The Norse inside-out balance included making seven 3-pointers. Kailee Davis made four triples on her way to 17 points.
Northern Kentucky went ahead for good late in the second quarter. Kalissa Lacy and Davis drilled consecutive three-pointers to put the Norse up 31-25 with 42 seconds left in the half. The Norse led 31-27 at halftime then extended it to 53-44 after three quarters.
Northern Kentucky (11-19) was the lone visiting team to advance to the quarterfinals Thursday out of the three first round games. The Norse travel to regular season champion Cleveland State for a 7 p.m. game. The winner heads to Indianapolis for the semifinals.