At least it wasn’t a surprise.
Although whether that makes it better or worse, well, you decide.
Photos by Dale Dawn
“We’d worked on that for the last two days,” said NKU Coach Darrin Horn, including “fifteen minutes (yesterday).” They knew from his history, Oakland senior Jalen Moore was far more effective, far more deadly, in the game’s last five minutes.
Perfect scouting report. The Norse coaches nailed it.
Unfortunately for NKU, the 5-foot-11 lefty Moore nailed it as well, just as they said he would, knifing through and over the hapless Norse for nine points – one quick unguarded three and six free throws — to Northern’s one in those final 76 seconds.
Do the math. That’s a 64-63 Oakland win that had NKU fans still standing, but in stunned silence, just seconds after they were celebrating a win on Trey Robinson’s corner three with 1:35 to go up by seven.
What looked to be something of a nondescript home win had turned into a crushing defeat in the blink of an eye for an NKU team that really must bank every home win it can in a weird Horizon League schedule that has the Norse on the road for seven of their eight final games.
Basically, they’ll be gone on the road for all but one game in February.
“It just stings a little bit more at home,” Horn said, “but not because of the structure of the schedule.”
Any game where you’re leading by seven with 76 seconds left and lose, well, “sting” might not be strong enough.
Just don’t ask Horn about this one in February. And don’t ask any of the players. Not that you could. No Norse players were made available after the game.
Marques Warrick, the leading scorer for NKU all year and in this game, with 16, made one of two free throws before then missing three contested layups in the final 50 seconds and a final three at the buzzer for the win.
The most frustrating single play, Horn said, or misplay, was losing Moore before he hit a quick, open three with 42 seconds left. But the play that was the decider was Sam Vinson’s foul on Moore’s three-point attempt with just 5.5 seconds left.
Moore quickly hit two – then after an NKU timeout – nailed the game-winner.
NKU would get a last shot – literally – when a review put 1.2 seconds on the clock for a final NKU three from Warrick – on an inbounds pass from Vinson – that bounced off.
“If you can get your best player the ball and a good look, I’ll live with that,” Horn said of NKU’s last gasp.
But of the NKU defenders against Moore, “That’s on me, we lost him in transition . . . that’s the most frustrating . . . we were really poor executing at the end . . . it’s my responsibility to figure it out.”
With 39 substitutions and a rotation of nine players who were on the floor for eight minutes or more, Horn didn’t stop trying to find the right combination on this night.
One thing Horn did figure out was this: “We need everybody to show up. We’re not good enough for that to happen. We have to be sharp defensively” because it’s clear, the Norse don’t have the offensive firepower.
They hit just 23 of 53 from the field (43.4 percent) with a mere five of 19 (26.3 percent) from three-point range.
The theme for Horn was consistent: “We’re not good enough to just show up and win . . . we didn’t do that tonight.”
Not in those last 76 seconds, they didn’t, as the Norse dropped to 9-7 (4-1 in the Horizon League) with their first loss in the last nine home games to an Oakland team that has now won just five of its 16 games but showed great balance with five of its six-man rotation in double figures.
And now in comes the best player in the Horizon League, Detroit Mercy senior Antoine Davis, a Wooden Award nominee and the second-leading scorer in the nation at 24.6 points a game, who will be here Sunday. He’s only the second player in NCAA history to score 3,000 career points while recording 500 assists.
Does getting torched by Moore help prepare his team for Davis, Horn was asked.
“I hope so,” he answered. Whether his Norse will answer is the question.
And while Horn said he didn’t think the schedule was the problem, after having to play on a Friday night and go against 17 local boys and girls high school basketball games in Northern Kentucky, Sunday’s 2 p.m. game will go head-to-head against the Bengals-Ravens NFL game. That makes four Sunday afternoon home games for NKU this year.
BOX SCORE
OAKLAND 28 36-64
NKU 33 30-63
OAKLAND (5-11, 3-2 Horizon): Hervey 3-2-2-10, Townsend 6-1-1-14, Watts 4-1-1-10, Lampman 1-1-0-3, Moore 3-2-9-17, Conway 4-0-2-10, Price, 0-0-0-0, Parker 0-0-0-0, TOTALS: 21-7-15-64.
NKU (9-7, 4-1 Horizon): Brandon 2-0-0-4, Robinson 3-1-4-11, Vinson 3-0-2-8, Warrick 6-2-2-16, Rhodes 3-0-0-6, Sumler 1-1-2-5, Faulkner 3-1-0-7, Zorgvol 1-0-2-4, Wells 1-0-0-2, Pivorius 0-0-0-0, TOTALS: 23-5-12-63.
Dan Weber is sports writer for the NKyTribune.
