If the past three games are any indicator of what late February, early March is going to look like in the Horizon League, buckle up.
While the Northern Kentucky University men’s basketball team has been on the wrong end of two straight overtime losses, the Norse are showing they’re right there despite losing one of their backbones of the team in Sam Vinson.
The latest loss was a 70-65 overtime setback to Oakland on the road on Wednesday night. It moved the Norse to 1-4 in games this season decided by five points or less.
Michael Bradley hit the game-tying 3-pointer with less than a minute to play in regulation, NKU surviving two Golden Grizzlies shots in the last minute that didn’t fall.
Similar to Sunday in an overtime loss to Cleveland State, NKU fell down early in the extra period. Oakland jumped ahead with the first four points to make it 62-58 with 3:52 to go in overtime. The Norse were unable to recover from there, getting within one after a Marques Warrick jumper with 3:18 remaining. Warrick got them back within two on two free throws with 47 seconds to play making it 67-65, but Michael Bradley was whistled for a foul on a Blake Lampman 3-point attempt with 24 seconds to play. Lampman hit all three attempts and the Norse were unable to convert on the other end.
It dropped NKU to 8-9 and 3-3 in the conference. Oakland moved to 10-8 and 5-2 in the conference in a tie for first with Green Bay.
LJ Wells posted a big game with 14 points and 15 rebounds to lead NKU. Trey Robinson added 12 points and seven rebounds, Warrick with 10 points. Michael Bradley and Keeyan Itejere added nine points apiece, Bradley adding five rebounds and five assists. Itejere battled foul trouble, posting five rebounds before fouling out with 1:11 to play in regulation.
Both teams struggled to shoot it, Oakland at 37%, NKU at 36%. Oakland hit 6-of-26 from three, NKU at a 5-for-28 clip. Oakland got to the line 29 times to NKU’s 16, the Golden Grizzlies hitting 18 free throws to the Norse’s 10.
The Norse will stay in Michigan until Saturday when they face Detroit at 1 p.m. Detroit (0-17, 0-6) has yet to win a game this season.