Norse Suffer Defeat To Rival Raiders At Truist Arena 85-78
(Photo by Bella Wilson)
On Sunday Afternoon at Truist Arena, the Northern Kentucky Norse suffered a tough loss to Rivals Wright State Raiders suffering their 12th loss of the season and sixth loss of Horizon League play.
The two teams that have been the faces of the Horizon League over the last decade had another competitive battle with each teams getting their chance to take over the game, just for the Raiders to put together a 15-0 run in the middle of the second half making the Norse try to play catch up for the rest of the game.
Trey Calvin led Wright State in scoring with 21 points going 6/11 from the floor and 7/9 from the free-throw line. AJ Braun had a double-double with 13 points and fourteen rebounds as well for Scott Nagy's team.
On NKU's side, Marques Warrick had another 20 point performance as he continues to chase Drew McDonald's all-time school scoring record. With today's game he is now under 50 points away from the mark. Warrick wasn't the most efficient version of himself shooting just 6-17 but was able to put pressure on Wright St's defense getting to the line for nine attempts. Michael Bradley added 17 points of his own, and Trey Robinson had 15 points, though he struggled to shoot from the field shooting just 39%.
While NKU was able to get the better of Wright State as far as forcing turnovers and scoring in transition, the Raiders ability to dominate in the paint gave them the edge they needed to put the game away. Wright State had a +12 rate with points in the paint and also out-rebounded the Norse 40-30.
As a team, NKU shot just 41% from the floor (27-66) and 31% from beyond the arch (8-26). In a season where it seems nothing has gone right for the Norse, a tough loss to their rivals wasn't an ideal circumstance to add to the struggles of the year.
After Sunday's loss, Northern Kentucky is now tied for 7th in the Horizon League with Purdue-Ft. Wayne. While history states that It's not ideal to have the #1 seed in the Horizon league tournament, NKU is struggling to fight and get the first round game of the conference tourney on their home floor. The beauty though, is they still have a month to put a run together and achieve this goal.
The Norse next take the floor on Thursday, Feb. 8th when they host Greg Kampe and the Oakland Golden Grizzlies. Oakland is currently tied for first in the conference at 10-3 in Horizon League play. Tip-off will be at 7:00 PM est and will be broadcast on ESPN+.