HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - Northern Kentucky concludes the season Saturday at 5:30 p.m. with a home game against Jacksonville. The Norse are 14-12 overall, 11-6 in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Jacksonville is 11-17 overall, 7-10 in the A-Sun.
THE STREAK CONTINUES: Northern Kentucky clinched its 30th consecutive winning season with a 57-44 victory over North Florida on Thursday night. Since an 0-4 start, Northern Kentucky has posted a 14-8 record. The Norse have also won eight of the past 10 games, including five road victories.
FROSH DUO LEAD THE WAY: Christine Roush scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds against North Florida. The freshman guard from Louisville, Ky., buried a trio of 3-pointers in the first half and added two assists.
Freshman guard
Rianna Gayheart, an Owen County High School graduate, added 13 points, five rebounds and three steals for the Norse.
D-1 RECLASSIFYING COMPARISON: How does Northern Kentucky compare to others who made the jump to Division I in Year 1? One-time Great Lakes Valley Conference rival Southern Illinois-Edwardsville moved to NCAA Division I status in 2008-09, and the women's basketball team posted a 5-24 record in its first season. The Cougars - who did not defeat a Division I opponent until the middle of January that first season - were 1-17 on the road and lost their final seven games.
At the other end of the reclassification spectrum is South Dakota State, which posted a 21-7 record in its first season of Division I play in 2004-05. Since making the move, the Jackrabbits have compiled five 20-win seasons and twice racked up 19 victories. They also finished 32-3 in 2008-09 and won the Summit League championship.
MOVING UP THE LIST: Senior center
Ellen Holton enters Saturday with 740 career points, which is 45th in Norse history. Heather Livingstone is No. 44 with 745 points.
CENTURY MARK LOOMS: Senior guard
Jaimie Hamlet enters Saturday with 99 career 3-point field goals, which ties her for eighth place on the Norse all-time list with Heather Livingstone.
PERFECT TREND: Northern Kentucky is unbeaten (12-0) when leading at halftime this season. The Norse are also perfect (5-0) when scoring more than 71 points.
FABULOUS FEBRUARY: The Norse were 7-1 in February with five straight road victories.
BOARD GAMES: Kayla Thacker hauled in 11 rebounds against North Florida on Thursday. The junior guard has grabbed at least 10 rebounds four times in the past five games. She has collected 50 rebounds during the past five games (10.0 rpg) and leads the Norse with an average of 6.0 boards per contest this season.
THE COACH: Northern Kentucky's
Dawn Plitzuweit is 131-51 as a head coach. Plitzuweit collected 117 wins in five seasons at Grand Valley State and led the Lakers to the 2006 NCAA Division II national championship. She is in her first year with the Norse.
THE LAST TIME AGAINST JACKSONVILLE: On Dec. 31, Tracie Sneed scored 18 points and knocked down a key 3-pointer late in the game as Jacksonville posted a 65-60 win over Northern Kentucky in Jacksonville, Fla.
After NKU rallied from a 10-point deficit to slice the Jacksonville lead to 56-53, Sneed buried a 3-pointer while being fouled with 1:35 remaining in the game to extend the Dolphins' advantage to 59-53. She missed the free throw, but Jade Cargill grabbed the offensive rebound.
NKU fouled Ronisha Mitchell, who made two free throws to give the Dolphins a 61-53 edge with 1:15 left on the clock. The Norse were able to get within three points twice in the last minute, but Queen Alford and Sneed both made a pair of free throws to seal the Jacksonville victory in the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
Tiara Hopper and
Kayla Thacker each scored 16 points to lead NKU. Hopper also grabbed eight rebounds for the Norse, and Thacker finished with seven boards.
Hopper scored NKU's first six points and
Jaimie Hamlet added a long trey as the Norse built an early 9-3 lead. NKU still owned a 13-7 advantage after a
Kaitlyn Gerrety basket, but Jacksonville stormed back with an 11-2 run to take an 18-15 lead. Jacksonville's bench outscored NKU's reserves 13- 5 in the first half as the Dolphins took a 33-31 lead into the locker room.
Sneed scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the first half to lead Jacksonville.
Christine Roush dished out a game-high six assists for NKU. She also added six rebounds and six points
Jacksonville finished 22-for-25 from the free-throw line, while NKU was 10-for-12 from the stripe. Sneed grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. Cargill added 12 points for the Dolphins, and Alford scored 11.
