Game Summary:

NKU completed their Wisconsin trip this weekend and kicked it off with a historic win over Milwaukee. NKU appears to have celebrated just a bit too hard on Saturday and did not come ready to play today in Green Bay. NKU gave up 38 points in the first 12 minutes of the half and dug themselves a hole that they were never able to overcome.The Norse trailed by as many as 19 points in the first half, shooting zzz.

The second half started with much of the same and Green Bay led by 19 with 18:19 remaining. However, NKU was able to channel some Donovan Oday magic and gradually chip away at the lead. The Norse went into the under 12 TV timeout trailing 64-51. With 8:03 remaining, Donovan Oday hit a layup and a free throw to get the game to 9 points at 71-62. Green Bay stretched the lead back to 13 with 5:58 remaining off of a Justin Allen layup. However, the Norse responded with a 9-0 run off of back to back to back 3’s from Kael, Wells, and Oday. NKU cut the deficit to just 75-71. The teams spent the next couple of minutes. trading baskets and NKU was unable to get a defensive stop to cut the lead further. At the 1:13 mark, an awesome backdoor pass from Ethan Elliott to Donovan Rakotonanahary led to a layup and a 2 point game (80-78). After that, neither team scored again, despite a combined 4 missed free throws from both teams, and 2 missed field goals from the Norse. Kael Robinson had an amazing look from the top of the key to win the game with 1 second left, however, it rattled off the rim and missed.

NKY’s Takeaways:

First and foremost, spotting a team you’re battling with for second place in the conference a 19 point lead in the first half makes it almost impossible to come back from. The Norses’ resiliency is admirable, and almost resulted in a second dramatic comeback thus far in conference play. However, they faltered down the stretch and went scoreless for the final minute, missing good looks and free throw attempts down the stretch.

Doug Gottlieb, renowned TV/radio personality can coach when he’s not doing 2 jobs at once. For those of you who don’t know of the story for Green Bay’s coach, he took over last year while still doing his daily radio show. Green Bay is much improved after last year, where they were one of the worst teams in the country, winning just 4 games and finishing 332nd on Kenpom. This year, Green Bay is a solid 239 in Kenpom and is sitting at 10-8 overall and 5-2 in Horizon League play. Him being a coach in Green Bay and having success is good, not only for the Phoenix, but the entire Horizon League.

This was truly a tale of two halves, with NKU just not being able to overcome the slow start. 13-28 from the field, 3-13 from deep, and a 19-6 Green Bay rebounding advantage in the first period is among the worst lines I’ve seen the Norse put up this year. The second half was dominated by NKU, mainly by an improved physicality on the glass (19-15 NKU advantage) and a 13-30 performance from the field, including 7-13 from deep. NKU held Green Bay to just 2-9 from deep in the second, which is a positive takeaway despite the loss.

Overall, NKU got bullied in the first half and didn’t come into this game with the intensity they needed to beat a good Green Bay squad. The pace was completely dictated by Green Bay, leading to just 60 possessions overall (NKU averages mid-70’s). That being said, NKU got beat at their own game a bit to start the game before Green Bay slowed the game down in the second.

Dan Gherezgher and Kael Robinson combined for 9 total points tonight. That is quite simply just not enough production from those two, and something we really haven’t seen this year. For whatever reason, This road trip has not been kind to Dan, who had a poor performance on Friday night, but others stepped up. Tonight, the two of them combining for a 3-14 performance just wasn’t something the Norse could overcome, and both seemed to be gassed.

Donovan Oday continues to step up when needed and is one of, if not the best 6th men in the country. His 31 points today brought the Norse into contention, but just wasn’t quite enough to get them over the hump.

Ethan Elliott was extremely inefficient tonight, going 3-11 from the field, however, he was a net positive from deep, going 3-5. He added 3 rebounds and 7 assists to just one turnover. Without his contributions from a distribution standpoint, the Norse would’ve never been close.

LJ Wells scored 13 points tonight, adding 7 rebounds and 2 assists. He did not turn the ball over tonight. However, NKU really needed to make him the focal point of the offense early in the first half and set the standard for physicality down low. That didn’t happen, and Green Bay dominated overall.

The Phoenix are 30th in the country in scoring from the free throw line, with 24.2% of their points coming from the charity stripe. Today, Green Bay went just 10-15 from there, which, pregame, if you would have told me that, I would have expected NKU to win easily.

Finally, NKU had just 3 turnovers today, which shows extreme growth in taking care of the ball. Green Bay does not force turnovers often at all, but this is still significant as we have seen NKU loose with the ball recently.

Up Next:

NKU heads back home to take on Detroit Mercy on Thursday night at 7:00.