NKU's Malcolm Eleby finds himself trapped by the Southern Indiana defense.
Box score
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Northern Kentucky University and Southern Indiana both entered Thursday night's Great Lakes Valley Conference showdown unbeaten and nationally ranked in the NCAA Division II poll.
When the final buzzer sounded inside The Bank of Kentucky Center, Southern Indiana walked away with its perfect record intact after posting a 76-63 victory against NKU. C.J. Trotter and Mohamed Ntumba combined for 48 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Screaming Eagles, who are ranked 22nd in the NCAA Division II poll.
Trotter scored 26 points and grabbed five rebounds for Southern Indiana, which improved to 5-0 overall, 1-0 in the GLVC. Ntumba added 22 points and seven rebounds as the Screaming Eagles shot 58 percent from the field and held NKU to just 31.1 percent shooting.
Southern Indiana dominated the glass and finished with a whopping 43-25 rebounding advantage. Ntumba, a 6-foot-7, 230-pound center, shot 10-for-12 from the field and added three blocked shots. Trotter scored with a variety of offensive moves and finished 8-for-11 from the field, including a trio of 3-pointers.
“I wrote one word for our pre-game, and it was 'toughness,' and I thought we lacked it on both ends of the floor,” NKU head coach
Dave Bezold said. “We didn't play well enough in any facet to win a basketball game against a very talented team. We weren't willing to do the dirty work on either end of the floor, the things you have to do against good teams.
“They took advantage of us, and we were just very, very careless on both ends of the floor.”
The Screaming Eagles closed the first half with an 11-3 run to take a 39-32 lead into the locker room. Ntumba and Kevin Gant sparked the spurt with four points apiece.
After NKU pulled to within two points (63-61) with less than six minutes remaining in the game, Southern Indiana used an 11-0 run to extend its lead to 74-61 with 1:21 left on the clock. Trotter started the spurt by scoring five straight points.
Malcolm Eleby scored 24 points to lead NKU (4-1 overall, 0-1 GLVC), which is ranked 20th nationally in the NCAA Division II poll.
Chris Knight added 12 points for the Norse, who were just 2-for-22 from 3-point range.
Bezold said there were no positives to be seen in Thursday's loss.
“Our job is to win games. That's the bottom line,” he said. “It's very disappointing when this is the very first night of conference, you've just come off a very big win, to have this performance, especially when you've trying to build crowd support. Fans want to come see a good team play, and we disappointed them tonight.”
NKU plays host to Indianapolis at 7:45 p.m. Saturday. NKU is sponsoring a “Break the Bank” promotion Saturday night and tickets are $1.
