The NKU Norse were looking to bounce back at Truist Arena from their 15 point loss to FL Atlantic last Thursday with a win against their Horizon League nemesis, the Wright St. Raiders Thursday night, winning 78-64. Both teams entered the game 7-6. WSU’s Trey Calvin was coming off a 27 point game and being named HLMBB’s Player of the Week.
NKU quickly jumped out to a 10 point lead and hovered around that point for most of the first half. They held WSU to 37.5% shooting (including 1-8 from 3pt). Chris Brandon had 6 points and 7 rebounds during a physical first two quarters. Tim Finke was doing all of the dirty work for WSU and had 7 rebounds and 6 assists at the end of the half.
The Norse came out of the gates with a vengeance during the 2nd half. After going on a 10-0 run, refused to look back. Chris Brandon put on an absolute clinic grabbing loose rebounds, putting up layups and dunks along with 2 huge blocks. He finished the game with 12 points, 14 rebounds and 2 blocks. Sam Vinson (who is currently tied for #4 in the nation in steals) chipped in anything he could to help his team with 11 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.
NKU kicked the lead up to 21 points in the fourth quarter however, Trey Calvin with WSU threw up 31 points against the Norse including 9 straight that cut the lead to just 9. However, a few smart timeouts from Coach Horn sucked any momentum out of the Raiders mini-runs. Warrick lead NKU in scoring with 19.
The NKU Norse play an away game next on Saturday night (12/31/22) at 2:00 p.m. against IUPUI live on ESPN+.
