By Tim Daniel
Through Four regular-season games, there is a trend starting to form for the Norse and that is close, exciting, down to the wire games.
Though this one was a bit different from UNC Greensboro and Eastern Michigan, in this one the Norse had a lead as high as 19 before Western Illinois made their comeback. When you glance over the stat sheet, it looks more like this was a Norse win but the final score obviously says otherwise.
NKU had the lead for 30:45 of the game, had 11 more points in the fast break, 12 more points in the paint, and overall were the better shooting team. The problem though is Western Illinois is a veteran team that isn't fazed by being down and will keep fighting.
So far this season, Western Illinois has had a victory over Nebraska and took DePaul down to the wire this past Saturday night. The Leathernecks were led by the veteran trio Will Carius, Luka Barisic, and Trenton Massner who all had double-digit point totals for the evening.
On the other end, Northern Kentucky saw a lot from their newcomers as they battled through the game. Sam Vinson struggled shooting the ball (4/12), but had six rebounds, three assists, and three steals along with a blocked shot. Hubertas Pivorious had another solid night shooting with 20 points and was 4/7 from deep.
Overall the Norse had a good shooting night but were undone by their turnovers, and the second-chance points they gave up. NKU tallied 21 total turnovers and were -3 in second-chance points. The Norse now hold a record of 2-2 and will get ready for a trip to Chicago this Friday when they face DePaul.
