Thurs., March 14 - San Francisco, Calif. - 10 p.m.
War Memorial Gym (4,800)
Northern Kentucky (11-15) at San Francisco (14-16)
NKU Radio: WQRT 1160 AM
•Richard Skinner (play-by-play) & Steve Moeller (color)
Series Record: First meeting
NORSE NOTES (FIVE STARTERS & ONE)
1• Northern Kentucky is 11-15 overall after rallying for a 66-62 win over Jacksonville on March 2. The Norse finished 9-9 in Atlantic Sun Conference play and tied for fourth place.
2• NKU wiped out a 13-point deficit in the final 2:36 of the game to defeat Jacksonville. The Norse closed the game with a 21-4 run after going to full-court pressure.
3•
Eshaunte Jones enters the season finale with 1,009 career points as a collegiate player. He was also named to the All-Atlantic Sun Conference first team.
4• This will mark NKU's second trip to the west coast this season, as the Norse played four games in San Diego to open the 2012-13 campaign.
5• NKU is 3-6 all-time in games played in the state of California.
+1• This is the first meeting between NKU and San Francisco.
SEASON FINALE: Northern Kentucky concludes its first season in Division I on Thursday night with a non-conference road game against the University of San Francisco. The game is set for 10 p.m. (ET) at War Memorial Gym in San Francisco, Calif.
Northern Kentucky is 11-15 overall entering Thursday's game, but the Norse finished tied for fourth place in the Atlantic Sun Conference with a 9-9 record. Northern Kentucky has gone 11-9 since beginning the season 0-6 in its debut as a Division I program.
San Francisco enters Thursday night with a 14-16 record after losing to Loyola Marymount in the West Coast Conference Tournament.
This will mark the first meeting between Northern Kentucky and San Francisco.
NORSE IN CALIFORNIA: Northern Kentucky is 3-6 all-time in games played in the state of California. The Norse began this season by playing in a round-robin tournament at the University of San Diego and finished 0-4 in that event.
In 1988, Northern Kentucky won two of three games in a tournament at Chico State. The Norse split two games in California in 1995, losing to Cal State Bakersfield and defeating Cal State Los Angeles.
IMPROBABLE RALLY: Northern Kentucky rallied from that 13-point deficit in the final 2:36 of the game to post a 66-62 win over Jacksonville on March 2 in front of a record-crowd of 6,719 in The Bank of Kentucky Center. It was the biggest crowd to ever watch a regular-season college basketball game in the facility, which opened in 2008.
Down 58-45 with 2:36 left on the clock, Northern Kentucky applied full-court pressure and forced six turnovers to ignite a game-ending 21-4 run.
DOWN, BUT NOT OUT: Northern Kentucky's rally from a 13-point deficit was its largest comeback win of the season. The Norse trailed by nine points at Navy in the first half earlier this season before rallying for a 55-46 victory.
CLUTCH FROSH: Three Norse freshmen played key roles in the comeback against Jacksonville. Freshman guard
Todd Johnson began the Norse rally with a 3-pointer while being fouled. He converted the free throw with 2:09 remaining to make it a 58-49 game.
A steal by Johnson on the Jacksonville inbounds pass led to a layup by freshman
Tyler White, cutting the Jacksonville lead to 58-51. When Johnson made a pair of free throws with 1:03 on the clock, Northern Kentucky had sliced the deficit to 58-55. Freshman
Anthony Monaco later made free throws to give Northern Kentucky a 62-61 lead in the closing seconds.
ALL-TIME NORSE COMEBACKS: On Nov. 24, 2001, Northern Kentucky rallied from a 20-point deficit to defeat Lewis, 88-73, in Romeoville, Ill. Lewis built a 42-22 lead with 4:58 remaining in the first half, but the Norse sliced the deficit to 13 points (46-33) at halftime.
In the second half, Northern Kentucky shot 69.6 percent from the field and held Lewis to just 28.6 percent shooting to collect the come-from-behind win, the largest comeback victory in Norse history.
On Dec. 16, 1991, Northern Kentucky rallied from a 17-point deficit against Oakland City in the final 8:07 of regulation to force overtime, and the Norse went on to pull out a record-setting 126-120 victory at Oakland City, Ind. The Mighty Oaks built a 93-76 lead with 8:07 left in the game, but the Norse full-court press ignited an incredible 31-12 run during the next five minutes that gave Northern Kentucky a 107-105 advantage.
Oakland City rallied and regained a 112-109 lead with a minute remaining in regulation, but Ryan Schrand buried a 3-pointer that tied the contest at 112-all and forced overtime. Northern Kentucky made 18 3-point field goals in that game and placed seven players in double figures, led by Greg Phelia's 24 points.
On March 12, 2011, Northern Kentucky rallied from an 18-point deficit with 16:52 left in the game, forced overtime and defeated Kentucky Wesleyan, 76-74, on
Tony Rack's 3-pointers as time expired. Kentucky Wesleyan owned a 47-29 lead, but Northern Kentucky outscored the Panthers 38-20 during the final 16 minutes to force overtime.
BEAR FACTS: Eshaunte Jones enters his final game with 1,009 career points as a collegiate player. Jones – known as “Bear” to teammates - scored a total of 287 points in two years at Nebraska, and he has 722 points in two seasons with Northern Kentucky. He averages a team-leading 15.8 points per game and was named All-Atlantic Sun Conference first team.
Jones has netted at least 20 points seven times this season, including a career-high 30 points in a win over North Florida. He has scored in double figures 19 times this season.
ELITE COMPANY: Northern Kentucky senior point guard
Ethan Faulkner dished out five assists against Jacksonville to pass Brenden Stowers for 10th place in Norse history with 347 career assists. Faulkner also moved past Ron Marbrey for 45th place in Norse history with 716 career points. The Sandy Hook, Ky., native is one of just 10 players in Norse history to score at least 700 points and dish out more than 300 assists.
MAGIC NUMBER: The Norse are 9-2 this season when scoring at least 60 points, but 2-13 when netting below 60 points.
TURNOVERS AT A MINIMUM: The Norse tied a school record Feb. 28 by committing just three turnovers against North Florida, outscoring the Ospreys by a whopping 23-4 in points off turnovers. Northern Kentucky then had just five turnovers against Jacksonville on March 2.
THIS DATE IN NORSE HISTORY: On March 14, 2003, in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Tournament at Houghton, Mich., sixth-seeded Findlay rallied from a 10-point deficit to stun third-seeded Northern Kentucky, 80-76.
The Norse - ranked No. 4 nationally in the NCAA Division II poll - shot 53.6 percent from the field, but they committed 24 turnovers and allowed Findlay to connect on 56.9 percent of its shots from the field. Northern Kentucky ended that season with a 25-6 record. It is the only time Northern Kentucky has ever played on March 14.
BASKETBALL ROYALTY: San Francisco is one of the giants in NCAA Division I basketball history. The Dons are a two-time NCAA Division I national champion (1955 and '56). That team that featured future NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell, one of the greatest centers to ever play the sport.
It is also a program that later produced All-Americans in Bill Cartwright, Winford Boynes and Quintin Dailey, all of whom were first-round NBA draft choices in the late 1970s and early 1980's. The 1977 San Francisco team started 29-0 and was ranked No. 1 in the nation much of that season before losing to Notre Dame and UNLV late in the campaign.
