The Northern Kentucky women’s basketball team may be in a dark tunnel now as the lone winless team in Horizon League play, but there are signs things are starting to turn the corner.
Northern Kentucky led a good part of the Sunday home game against Milwaukee, but faltered in the fourth quarter in a 75-67 loss at Truist Arena to fall to 0-5 in league play. The Norse (2-12) have lost six in a row while Milwaukee (8-9) snapped a three-game losing streak to improve to 2-4 in league play.
“I thought that quarter for quarter we were more consistent. We’ve really struggled with points in quarters,” NKU head coach Camryn Volz said. “We’ve not played well in the first half in the past three games and then come out in the second. We’re going to continue to tweak our offense. People are starting to understand their roles now that we’ve got consistency with players who are not injured. That just takes time. It almost feels like we just started the season because we’ve just got everyone back into practice.”
Turnovers have been an issue for the Norse this year, committing 18 on Sunday. That is two less than the 30-point loss against Green Bay on Friday, but the Panthers outscored the Norse, 24-15 off those turnovers.
Carter McCray continued to shine. McCray came into the game averaging a near double-double with team-highs of 12.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. McCray finished with 13 points and nine rebounds despite constant attention.
“She gets a little frustrated. She just doesn’t know,” McCray said. “I said, ‘It’s good. You’re a good player so people are going to pay attention to that.’ But we’ve got to continue to find ways to feed her in the post.”
The Norse hope to hit perimeter shots more consistently around McCray to free up more one-on-one opportunities. The Norse made seven three-pointers after making 11 against Green Bay.
Northern Kentucky had Kailee Davis make three 3-pointers on her way to 16 points. Allison Basye and Khamari Mitchell-Steen scored 11 each. Kennedy Igo also made two 3-pointers.
The Norse had their share of opportunities in transition recording 12 steals that resulted in 15 fast break points. Mitchell-Steen led the Norse with four steals with McCray and Noelle Hubert recorded three each.
Northern Kentucky held Milwaukee’s two leading scorers in Kendall Nead and Anna Lutz to seven and nine points after they came in averaging 13.2 and 11.4 points per game. Milwaukee’s leader in 3-pointers made Kamy Peppler hit four on her way to a game-high 24 points and Jorey Buwalda came off the bench to score 18 to go with 12 rebounds for a double-double.
Things went back and forth in the first half. Northern Kentucky led 15-13 after the first quarter before Milwaukee led most of the second quarter. Mitchell-Steen made a jumper with 45 seconds left to put Northern Kentucky up 31-30. The Panthers took a 32-31 halftime lead when Peppler hit a jumper as time expired.
Northern Kentucky seemed to start taking control in the third quarter when Basye made a three-point play with 2:01 left to give the Norse a 49-42 advantage. Milwaukee (8-9) scored seven straight including a three by Peppler at the buzzer to take a 54-53 lead into the fourth quarter.
Igo gave the Norse their final lead at 56-54, 48 seconds into the fourth quarter. Milwaukee responded with another seven-point run to go up 61-56, stretching the lead to as much as nine.
After three games in six days, NKU is off until Sunday when they travel west on I-74 to take on Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis at 2 p.m.