On Jan. 17, Northern Kentucky University’s women’s basketball celebrated a seven-game winning streak – the longest since becoming an NCAA Division I program 14 years ago.
On Saturday, however, the Norse suffered their second straight loss, a 97-91 overtime setback to Purdue-Fort Wayne.
Instead of rejoicing over being second in the Horizon League standings behind Wisconsin-Green Bay, NKU fell to fifth at 7-5 in the league and 10-13 overall in a week that started with Wednesday’s 75-70 loss at IU-Indianapolis.
“Tough one (Saturday) at home,” NKU head coach Jeff Hans said. “Great game, great game for a lot of people to see. I thought we just came out on the wrong side of it.”
Fifth-year guard and Scott alumna Mya Meredith said her team needs to be more composed.
“I think sometimes we freak out a little, and we’re rushing it a little bit too much, like we did in the first quarter,” Meredith said.
From the long view, January has been a good month; NKU is 7-2 – which almost makes you forget about the 3-11 record before the streak started.
“Scary” might be too tame a word to describe NKU’s early season. The Norse lost to Marshall, Louisville, Ball State and Butler by an average 22.75-point margin.
“We didn’t get off to a great start, but the level of competition in our non-league was so good,” Hans said Thursday. “I mean, when you’re playing, starting off with Marshall, then you go to Louisville, and then you go to Ball State, then you go to Butler. I mean, those are four good programs.”
After a home win over Toledo on Nov. 19, NKU went into another downward spiral: losses to Chattanooga, Stetson, Ohio State and Bradley, wins over Drake and Southern Indiana and conference losses to Green Bay, Robert Morris and Cleveland State.
“A lot of teams that we were playing had won their league previously or been in the top half of their league last season,” Hans said. “And so, in those games, in November, December … we would always go in the locker room after games and say, ‘Hey, we played well for 15, we played well for 20, we played well for 25 minutes.’”
Karina Bystry’s 14.5 points a game – including Saturday’s career-high 35 – leads the team. Maddie Moody is next at 10.7 (she also averages a team-high 7.0 rebounds, Taysha Ruston is next at 9.0, and Meredith is fourth at 8.8).
NKU’s streak started Dec. 29 at PFW. Bystry’s 25 points led all scorers, and Meredith’s layup with :08 in overtime secured the 88-85 win.
“A little bit of a roller coaster,” Hans said.
It was: a 17-0 second-quarter run put the Mastodons ahead, 46-31, and Rushton’s 3 at the buzzer sent the game to overtime.
Three relatively more comfortable wins followed: 63-44 over IU Indy on Jan. 2, 75-57 over Detroit Mercy on Jan. 4 and 61-49 at Youngstown State.
After an 81-76 win at Robert Morris on Jan. 10 – Bystry had 24 points, Rushton had 19 and Meredith added 17 – NKU beat Milwaukee, 63-55 on Jan. 14 and left Fairborn, Ohio with an 82-56 victory over Wright State.
Four Norse scored in double figures Wednesday – Moody, Bystry and Abby Wolterman had 19, 18 and 17 points, respectively, and Meredith added 10.
NKU repeated its scoring drought against PFW on Saturday – The Mastodons led, 11-0, after three minutes. The Norse didn’t take their first lead until Rushton’s 3 with 4:31 left in the fourth quarter, and Bystry’s layup less than five seconds into overtime made it 83-81 – just in time for PFW’s 10-1 run over the next three minutes.
Rylee Bess led PFW with 27 points. Jordan Reid was next with 19, Alana Nelson had 16 and eight rebounds, Lauren Lee had 11 points, and Lili Krasovec added 10.
NKU begins a two-game home stand next Saturday against Cleveland State and Oakland on Feb. 3. Meredith’s goal – and maybe the rest of the Norse’s – is to remain calm.
“Because the more we get sped up, the more, like, bad things happen,” Meredith said. “So I just think being composed will be big help in the future.”