Northern Kentucky University women’s basketball head coach Camryn Whitaker grew up going to the ballpark to watch her dad Mac Whitaker coach the Harrison County Thoroughbreds baseball team. He holds the Kentucky High School Athletic Association record for head coaching wins at 1,189-370 to go with four state championships in 44 seasons.
Whitaker said a big lesson she learned from him is toughness. The Norse (6-4 overall) displayed that on defense in the second half, rallying for a 75-66 victory over the Miami (Ohio) University RedHawks (3-5) on Sunday afternoon.
“We made a few adjustments at halftime,” she said. “We talk about our defensive intensity. We preach it. Once we can start doing that consistently for 40 minutes, I keep telling them I’m never worried about our offense because we have really good offensive players. In that second half, we really locked in. The kids did a great job of executing just the small little tweaks that we made. The outcome speaks for itself.”
Northern Kentucky trailed 46-37 at halftime before outscoring Miami, 38-20 in the second half. The RedHawks started the game hot, hitting 17-of-28 shots in the first half, but went 6-for-28 from the field in the second half.
On the other side, the Norse had six players score eight or more points, shooting 50% from the field and knocking down nine 3-pointers.
Northern Kentucky’s three leading scorers did their usual things. Sophomore guard Kailee Davis made 8-of-12 shots on her way to 20 points to go with five assists. This marked the second time she scored 20 or more in a game this year.
“It feels good. Usually when I’m playing, I don’t think about my points. I just do what I can for my team to get the win,” Davis said. “I got going and was looking for my shot and looking for my teammates.”
Graduate student guard Lindsey Duvall recorded her fourth straight and sixth double-double of the year with 18 points and 11 rebounds, and senior guard Ivy Turner scored 11 points to go with four rebounds and three assists. Both are close to 1,000 career points – Duvall at 997 and Turner at 987.
The other two starters are graduate student Emmy Souder and sophomore guard Khamari Mitchell-Steen scored nine and eight points respectively. Souder added seven rebounds and blocked one shot.
But Northern Kentucky received a huge lift from junior guard Kennedy Igo. She made all three three-point shots on her way to nine points. Igo made back-to-back triples with 6:54 and 6:28 left in the game to put Northern Kentucky up for good at 66-60.
“We practice those shots all the time,” Igo said. “I think Lindsey (Duvall) hit me on both of them. (We) penetrate and kick. I had confidence and my team had confidence and it felt good.”
Defensively, Northern Kentucky focused on Miami’s two leading scorers in sophomore guards Ivy Wolf and Maddi Cluse along with senior guard Peyton Scott. Wolf and Cluse came in averaging 18.3 and 17.6 points per game and Scott averaged 8.3.
Wolf finished with 20 points with Scott and Cluse finishing with 19 and 16, respectively. But the rest of the RedHawks scored just a combined 11 points. Wolf had six points in the second half and Scott had just two.
“We started denying (Wolf),” Whitaker said. “We put (Mitchell-Steen) and (Turner) and (junior guard) Ellie (Taylor) some off the bench (on Wolf). Kennedy (Igo) had to guard her some. Sometimes we got switched off. We were trying to hedge in the first half on the ball screens. Then we just decided to get through them or switch them. Just not letting (Wolf and Scott) catch the ball was the biggest way we could help our ball screen defense because then somebody else had to come off them.”
Of their four losses, three came to Mid-American Conference opponents before winning the final match-up against one Sunday. Northern Kentucky lost on the road to Kent State and Bowling Green before losing a tight 70-69 game to Akron at Truist Arena on Nov. 28. Davis did not play against Kent State or Akron.
“(Davis) just makes a difference on our team,” Whitaker said. “When she’s not out there, it’s evident. Kailee has become our coach on the floor – our true point guard that can really score the basketball. It takes a lot of the pressure off Ivy and allows her to get off the ball some, which she’s more comfortable with. I feel the same way about pretty much everyone on our team.”
After five games in 13 days, a break comes as the Norse do not play again for 10 days when the University of Cincinnati (5-5) comes to Truist Arena for a 6 p.m. game on Dec. 21.