NKU's Eshaunte Jones glides to the basket against Ohio Midwestern.
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Box score
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – A fact of life inside The Bank of Kentucky Center is that all non-conference men's basketball opponents leave with a loss after facing Northern Kentucky University.
Ohio Midwestern College learned that lesson Tuesday night during a 96-52 loss at NKU. The Norse shot 55.2 percent from the field and improved to 23-0 all-time against non-conference foes in The Bank of Kentucky Center.
Eshaunte Jones scored a career-high 25 points to lead unbeaten NKU (7-0), which jumped into the NCAA Division II national rankings Tuesday afternoon at No. 23. Jones was 7-for-8 from 3-point range and led a Norse outside attack that finished 13-for-24 from behind the arc.
Ohio Midwestern actually owned a 6-0 lead two minutes into the game, but NKU responded with a 16-2 run to build a 16-8 advantage. Jones sparked the Norse spurt by knocking down four 3-pointers.
“We started off slowly, but (Jones) started hitting those shots from the outside and it got us going,” NKU head coach
Dave Bezold said after picking up his 145th career victory. “Jones has the ability to really score a lot of points in a hurry, and his shooting was outstanding.”
NKU's
DeAndre Nealy added 13 points and four blocked shots, while teammates
Paul Byrd and
Jon Van Hoose each scored 11. The Norse built a 40-20 halftime lead as Jones netted 12 points – all on 3-pointers - and Nealy scored eight.
“We picked up our intensity after a slow start,” Jones said.
Jones, a transfer from Nebraska, was asked if he had ever enjoyed a shooting performance like the one he experienced Tuesday night.
“Once - against BYU and Jimmer Fredette,” Jones said of a 21-point performance he delivered against Brigham Young. “That was a night like this.”
Chad Jackson dished out a career-high 10 assists and added eight points, six rebounds and four steals. The sophomore guard did all that in just 22 minutes of playing time.
Stretch Watson added nine points and seven rebounds for NKU, which placed 11 players in the scoring column.
As a team, NKU finished with 21 assists. The Norse held Ohio Midwestern (3-8) to just 39.6 percent shooting from the field and won the rebounding battle by a 40-22 margin.
Nick McCoy led the Rams with 27 points on 12-for-21 shooting from the field. It marked the first meeting between NKU and Ohio Midwestern in men's basketball.
NKU plays host to Urbana this Sunday at 5 p.m. The Norse already own a 95-74 win over the Blue Knights this season. NKU then takes a week off for exams and resumes play Dec. 18 with a home game against Salem International.
