Head coach Camryn Volz agreed weeks ago that things would click for the Northern Kentucky University women’s basketball team at some point.
That point came Wednesday at Truist Arena when the Norse scored the game’s first 12 points and kept building on it on their way to a 83-51 Horizon League victory over Robert Morris. The first league win of the season snaps Northern Kentucky’s seven-game losing streak.
“I thought our defensive intensity kick-started the game,” Volz said. “We had talked about in practice just getting off to a good start and piggy-backing off of our second half against IUPUI when we scored 60 points in the second half and played much better. It was nice to see us build off that and that’s what we’re going to try to do going forward.”
The Norse (3-13) put four players in double figures in the win. Macey Blevins led the way, scoring 17 points and recording four assists. Blevins has averaged 19.5 points in each of the past two games racking up nine double-digit games this year.
“I’ve been getting in the gym a lot more with our coaches,” Blevins said. “I just feel that gives me more confidence. I went through a shooting slump there for a few games so I feel that getting back in the gym and getting some extra work in has really helped me a lot.”
The consistent Carter McCray gave the Norse inside-outside balance with another double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds. McCray has two straight double-doubles and six overall. She leads the Horizon League averaging 9.9 rebounds per game and is sixth in scoring at 13.6 a contest.
“We’ve been working on (running the floor) in practice a lot,” McCray said. “It’s hard to match up in transition. We know that ourselves. I feel like we’ve been capable of (dominant wins). We’ve had some really great quarters and halves in previous games, but in this game, we were able to put together a full game and keep pushing every quarter.”
Khamari Mitchell-Steen and Kailee Davis added 16 and 12, respectively as all 10 Norse that played scored at least one point. Davis also had six assists.
Rebounding and turnovers had been a problem for Northern Kentucky this year. In this game, the Norse won the rebounding battle, 40-38 and recorded 17 assists to just nine turnovers. The Norse shot 49% from the field.
On the other side, Robert Morris had 16 turnovers and just six assists. Northern Kentucky outscored Robert Morris, 18-7 in points off turnovers.
Robert Morris (6-12) also had 10 players score, but only one hit double figures. Rebecca Dwomoh led the way with 10 as the Colonials lost their fifth in a row.
“I think defensively, we got them out of their game plan,” Volz said. “They weren’t able to get the ball inside as much as they’d like to I’m sure. I thought the whole team did a nice job on (holding Simone Morris to eight points). That was a big goal for us and a key.”
Northern Kentucky hosts Wright State on Saturday at 4 p.m.