The Northern Kentucky University women’s basketball team headed to northeast Ohio knowing a huge challenge awaited them if they wanted to head to Indianapolis for the Horizon League Conference Tournament semifinals on Monday.
The top-seeded Cleveland State Vikings ended Northern Kentucky’s season for the third year in a row with a 88-78 victory.
Freshman standout Carter McCray put up her 17th double-double of the season scoring 29 points and grabbing 14 rebounds to go with four steals. McCray grabbed 346 rebounds on the season, which is the second-most in a season in program history. McCray led the Horizon League in rebounding and also led the country in total rebounds and double-doubles.
Noelle Hubert was other NKU player to hit double-digits, scoring 12 points. Kailee Davis scored nine points with Khamari Mitchell-Steen and Kennedy Igo scoring eight each.
Cleveland State put four players in double figures, shooting 59% from the field compared to 45% for the Norse. Colbi Maples led the Vikings with 31 points. Mickayla Perdue, Jordana Reisma and Sara Guerreiro scored 24, 15 and 10 points, respectively.
The Vikings won the rebounding battle 32-26 and outscored Northern Kentucky 18-8 in fast break points.
The first quarter started back and forth with Cleveland State leading 22-19 after the first 10 minutes. The Vikings then went on a run in the second quarter scoring 30 points to go up 52-31 at halftime.
Northern Kentucky battled back in the third to trim the margin to 70-55. The Norse cut the lead to 74-68 with 5:46 remaining, but came no closer.
Northern Kentucky finished the season 11-20 overall and went 9-7 over the last 16 games. They also made it back to the Horizon League Conference Tournament quarterfinals for the seventh straight year.
Despite the adversity throughout the year in dealing with numerous injuries, NKU should come into next season in better shape in terms of experience. Igo is the lone senior on the roster while McCray and Hubert played in every game as freshman and filled in valuable roles.