Northern Kentucky continues to find a way in March.
The Norse men’s basketball team shook off a dreadful start to take down rival Wright State 99-97 in overtime in Thursday night’s Horizon League Conference Tournament quarterfinal matchup in Dayton.
Trailing by 17 in the first half, NKU found an improbable way of getting the game to overtime. Trailing 89-86 with 4.4 seconds to play, Trey Robinson went to the line for two. After hitting the first, Robinson intentionally missed the second, Randall Pettus II snagging a loose ball out of the air and laying it in with less than a second remaining.
In the extra five minutes, the Norse opened on an 8-3 run in the first three minutes. Leading by two and eight seconds left, the Norse missed two free throws, Wright State’s Alex Huibregtse 3-point attempt in the closing seconds unable to drop.
It took some herculean efforts from the Norse to advance. Marques Warrick played 44 of 45 minutes, scoring 35 points in an efficient manner, hitting 11-of-19 shots from the field, 4-of-6 from deep and all nine free throw attempts.
Trey Robinson and Michael Bradley played 43 minutes, Robinson’s double-double tallying 17 points and 12 rebounds while Bradley scored 17 points to go with four assists. Pettus had a 16-point, six rebound effort, the one at the end of regulation the most important of the game.
Three wins in March now turns into two for the Norse. They’ll take on Milwaukee next in Monday’s semifinals at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
The two split the regular season series, NKU winning on their home floor 90-72 back on Jan. 18, Milwaukee getting their revenge in Wisconsin on Feb. 17 with a 73-72 victory on a last second shot.
The Norse head to their sixth straight conference tournament semifinal aiming for their fifth conference tournament championship in the last eight years.