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Sat., Feb. 22
Nashville, Tenn. – Allen Arena (5,028)
NKU (14-10 overall, 10-3 A-Sun) vs. Lipscomb (5-19 overall, 2-11 A-Sun)
Series Record: NKU leads 3-0
Last Meeting: NKU 72, LU 56 (Jan. 25, 2014)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky University women's basketball team begins a three-game road trip on Saturday in Nashville, Tenn., as the Norse face Lipscomb in Allen Arena looking to complete the season sweep at 5 p.m. Eastern.
NKU is 14-10 overall and 10-3 in the Atlantic Sun Conference after defeating Jacksonville, 69-61, on Saturday at The Bank of Kentucky Center.
Kelley Wiegman led the way for NKU with a career-high 19 points and five rebounds to earn her first Atlantic Sun Conference Newcomer of the Week honors.
Melody Doss finished with 18 points and five assists for the Norse, while
Kayla Thacker added 12 points and six rebounds.
Lipscomb enters the contest 5-19 on the year and 2-11 in the Atlantic Sun after holding on for an 84-76 victory over North Florida on Saturday. Ashley Southern scored 29 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to earn her first Atlantic Sun Player of the Week honor. Danay Fothergill added 16 points on the night for the Lady Bisons, while Sara Bliss chipped in 14 and Kelli Smith finished with 12 points.
Fothergill leads four Lipscomb players averaging in double figures on the year. She is averaging a conference-leading 18.7 points, followed by Chandler Cooper's 15.7 and Southern's 15.5 points and 11.7 rebounds per game, which also leads the Atlantic Sun. Bliss rounds out the scoring for the Lady Bisons with an average of 10.8 points. Maya Dillard has dished out 77 assists this season to land fourth in the conference with an average of 3.5 per contest.
Lipscomb, which captured its first two Atlantic Sun wins of the season last week against Jacksonville and North Florida, averages 69.5 points per game to rank second in the conference, and the Lady Bisons scored a season-high 94 points to defeat Jacksonville. Lipscomb is shooting 32.0 percent from behind the 3-point arc and 71.6 percent from the free-throw line to land fourth in the Atlantic Sun in both categories.
Links to live stats, the ESPN3 broadcast and Andrew Kappes' audio broadcast will be available at nkunorse.com.
LAST TIME AGAINST LIPSCOMB: Kayla Thacker scored 18 points and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds to lead NKU to a 72-65 victory over Lipscomb on Jan. 25 at The Bank of Kentucky Center in the last meeting between the two programs.
Thacker, who scored a career-high 23 points against Lipscomb on Feb. 9, 2013, equaled her career best in rebounds for the third time as a Norse with her first double-double of the season. It also marked the senior guard's third career double-double.
Sarah Kinch finished one shy of her career high in points with 15 on 7-for-9 shooting from the floor. She pulled down four rebounds, while
Christine Roush added 13 points, three rebounds, two assists and one blocked shot for the Norse.
NKU took a 40-28 advantage into the halftime break, but Lipscomb used a 10-3 run to open the second half and cut the NKU lead to 43-38 with 16:56 left. The Norse responded with a 16-5 spurt to push the score to 59-43 with 10:33 remaining on the clock, but the Lady Bisons once again fought back.
Lipscomb held NKU scoreless during a six-minute span and scored 13 straight points to cut their deficit to three (59-56) with 4:33 left in the game behind nine points from Chandler Cooper. Thacker ended the drought with a layup to give the Norse a 56-51 advantage on the next possession.
Ashley Southern and Thacker traded points before Thacker drained a 3-pointer from the left corner to give NKU a 66-58 lead. Sara Bliss answered with a trey of her own to pull the Lady Bisons to within five (66-61) before
Lauren White scored four consecutive points for a 70-61 Norse lead with less than a minute on the clock.
Cooper stopped the short NKU run with a jumper, but White and Thacker converted free throws to seal the victory for the Norse.
Kelley Wiegman finished with nine points, five rebounds and three assists for the Norse, who shot 45.9 percent from the floor on the night. Doss scored eight points and grabbed nine rebounds, while
Kaitlyn Gerrety blocked three shots for NKU.
The Norse finished with eight blocked shots on the night and only committed eight turnovers, including just three in the first half. NKU's bench players outscored Lipscomb's reserves, 24-9, while the Lady Bisons shot just 38.8 from the field and 30.8 percent from behind the arc.
Cooper led the Lady Bisons with 19 points, six rebounds and three assists, while Southern added 13 points and 10 rebounds. Danay Fothergill finished with 17 points for Lipscomb, which outrebounded NKU by a 40-39 margin.
WIEGMAN WINS WEEKLY AWARD: Kelley Wiegman received Atlantic Sun Conference Newcomer of the Week honors on Monday after averaging 15.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in victories over North Florida and Jacksonville a week ago.
She shot 64.7 percent from the field and knocked down six 3-point field goals, while dishing out eight assists and collecting three steals on the week.
Wiegman scored 16 of her career-high 19 points in the second half on Saturday to help NKU avenge an early-season loss to Jacksonville with a 69-61 win over the Dolphins. She went 6-for-10 from the floor and knocked down a career-best five 3-pointers, having only connected on seven attempts on the year entering the contest.
She pulled down five rebounds, all in the second half, to help stall several Jacksonville comebacks. Wiegman also collected four assists and two steals, and she connected on her only two free throw attempts in the closing seconds to help seal the victory for the Norse.
The freshman guard from Cincinnati, Ohio, began the week with an 11-point performance as NKU completed the season sweep of North Florida with a 78-65 victory on Thursday. Wiegman finished 5-for-7 from the field and recorded four assists and one steal.
On the year, Wiegman is averaging 7.3 points and 3.5 rebounds per game for the Norse. She leads the team in assists (57), steals (30), free throws made (72) and free throws attempted (100).
SHOT REJECTIONS: NKU blocked a season-high nine shots in its 69-61 victory over Jacksonville on Saturday evening at The Bank of Kentucky Center.
Kaitlyn Gerrety rejected a season-high five attempts, which tied
Melody Doss' performances against both Youngstown State (Nov. 20) and Mercer (Jan. 9). Doss,
Kayla Thacker,
Lauren White and
Rianna Gayheart each recorded a block as well.
This season, the Norse rank third in the Atlantic Sun in blocked shots. As a team, they have turned away 96 shots for an average of four rejections per game. Doss lands fourth in the conference with an average of 1.5 blocks per game (37 total), followed by Gerrety's 1.0 per contest (24 total).
MAKING EXTRA PASSES: For the third week in a row, NKU recorded a game in which the Norse collected assists on all but a maximum of five made shots. The team accumulated 20 assists on just 25 made shots on Saturday in NKU's 69-61 victory over Jacksonville at The Bank of Kentucky Center.
On Feb. 6, the Norse had 24 assists on their 27 successful shot attempts against Mercer in Macon, Ga., which followed an 18-assist performance against Florida Gulf Coast on Feb. 1 at The Bank of Kentucky Center. Against the Eagles, NKU connected on 23 of its shots from the field, including nine from behind the 3-point arc.
The Norse are averaging 12.5 assists per game for 301 total on the year to rank fourth in the Atlantic Sun.
Kelley Wiegman leads the team with 57 on the year and is 11th in the conference with a 2.4 average.
FROM LONG RANGE: In three of NKU's last four games, the Norse have knocked down at least 10 3-pointers, including 10 against Jacksonville on Saturday. It marked the fourth time this season NKU has accomplished that feat. The Norse connected on 11 against North Florida to start last week, and NKU also knocked down 11 treys against Miami (Ohio) at The Bank of Kentucky Center on Dec. 7.
Last Thursday, NKU hit a season-high 14 shots from long range, which fell one shy of the school record, en route to a 72-64 victory at Mercer. The school-record 15 3-pointers was set against Southern Indiana on Jan. 18, 2003. NKU defeated the Eagles, 98-82, in that matchup in Evansville, Ind.
FROM THE FREE-THROW LINE: NKU combined to go 26-for-30 from the free-throw line in wins against North Florida and Jacksonville at The Bank of Kentucky Center last week. The Norse shot 89.5 percent (17-for-19) from the charity stripe against North Florida on Thursday, before finishing 9-for-11 on Saturday against Jacksonville.
The Norse improved their season average to 76.1 percent from the free-throw line to strengthen its lead in the Atlantic Sun. As a reclassifying institution, NKU is not eligible to be ranked in the national statistics. However, its free-throw percentage would land among the top 20 in the country if the Norse were able to be included.
Christine Roush tops the Atlantic Sun, having connected on 92.1 percent (58-for-63) of her attempts from the line, and would rank eighth nationally.
Lauren White is fourth in the conference at 84.1 percent (58-for-69).
STRIVING FOR 31: With five games to go in the season, NKU needs just one victory to clinch its 31st consecutive winning season. The Norse finished their inaugural season competing at the NCAA Division I level last season with a 15-13 overall record. The team continued the streak last season with a 57-44 victory over North Florida at The Bank of Kentucky Center in the final week of conference action.
