Atlantic Sun Weekly Release |
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Thurs., Feb. 6
Macon, Ga.. – Hawkins Arena (3,200)
NKU (11-9 overall, 7-2 A-Sun) vs. Mercer (11-9 overall, 4-5 A-Sun)
Series Record: NKU leads 2-1
Last Meeting: NKU 72, MU 61 (Jan. 9, 2014)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky University women's basketball team travels Macon, Ga., to start the second half of its Atlantic Sun Conference schedule against Mercer at 7 p.m. in Hawkins Arena on Thursday.
NKU improved to 11-9 overall and 7-2 in the Atlantic Sun Conference after cruising to a 63-43 victory over Florida Gulf Coast at The Bank of Kentucky Center Saturday.
Kayla Thacker led the way for NKU with a season-high 22 points and game-high nine rebounds as the Norse snapped FGCU's 44-game regular-season Atlantic Sun winning streak.
Kelley Wiegman added 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the floor, while
Lauren White dished out a career-high seven assists.
Mercer enters the contest 11-9 overall and 4-5 in the Atlantic Sun after defeating Kennesaw State, 64-59, on Saturday. Briana Williams scored a career-high 24 points to lead the Bears, while Kendra Grant finished with 19 points and five rebounds. Sharnea Boykin dished out a game-high seven assists and collected three steals on the afternoon.
Precious Bridges leads the Mercer offense, averaging 17.0 points per game, but she has missed the last five games. Williams is averaging 12.7 points, while Grant adds 11.7 and Alicia Williams contributes 10.7 points per contest for the Bears. Teanna Robinson is grabbing 10.2 rebounds per game, which ranks third in the Atlantic Sun. Boykin's 6.7 assists per game leads the Atlantic Sun, and she has handed out 133 total on the year.
As a team, Mercer is averaging 63.2 points per game and ranks third in the Atlantic Sun in free throw shooting at 72.5 percent on the year. The Bears rank fourth in scoring defense (64.2 ppg), field-goal percentage (.391) and rebounds per game (39.8). Mercer is holding the opposing team to just 30.8 percent from behind the 3-point arc this season, which lands the team fifth in the conference.
Links to live stats, the ASun.TV broadcast and Andrew Kappes' audio broadcast will be available at nkunorse.com.
LAST TIME AGAINST MERCER: Melody Doss scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead NKU to a 72-61 victory over Mercer at The Bank of Kentucky Center on Jan. 9, 2014, to take a 2-1 advantage in the all-time series between the two programs.
Doss equaled her career high with five blocked shots and added four assists. She connected on each of her six attempts from the free-throw line and led five NKU players in double figures.
Christine Roush poured in 14 points on 5-for-8 shooting from the floor, while
Kayla Thacker scored 13 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
Lauren White finished with 12 points and six rebounds, and
Kelley Wiegman added 10 points and a game-high five assists for the Norse.
NKU closed the first half with a 12-3 run to turn a 27-26 deficit into a 38-30 lead at halftime. Wiegman sparked the run with a 3-point basket to regain the lead for the Norse, and a conventional 3-point play by Roush pushed the advantage to five (32-27) with 3:06 remaining in the half.
Sharnea Boykin cut the score to 32-30 with a trey, but Doss responded with six straight points to end the opening 20 minutes of play.
Roush pushed the NKU lead to 40-30 with a jumper to start the second half, but Mercer answered with five consecutive points to come to within five at 40-35 with 15:53 left to play. The Norse later broke the game open with a 17-2 run for their largest lead of the game, holding a 65-43 advantage at the 6:43 mark.
The Bears cut the NKU lead to 11 three times, including the last time on a layup by Teanna Robinson with four seconds left to play, but were unable to get any closer.
NKU finished with a 40-35 edge in rebounds and collected seven blocked shots on the night.
Precious Bridges scored 15 of her team-high 17 points in the second half to lead Mercer. The Norse defense limited Bridges to just one field goal in her first nine attempts.
Boykin added 14 points for the Bears and dished out three assists to enter the Atlantic Sun's top 10 career assists list, while Robinson grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds and finished with four points.
THACKER'S WEEKLY HONOR: Kayla Thacker became the second NKU player to earn the Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Week honor when she received her first weekly award on Monday.
Melody Doss was the first earlier this season to earn the title, and she received the honor three out of the first four weeks.
The senior guard from Mt. Washington, Ky., scored a season-high 22 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds to lead the Norse on Saturday as NKU upset FGCU. She finished 8-for-10 from the field, including 4-for-5 from behind the 3-point arc.
Her defensive assignment on the night was the Eagles' Sarah Hansen, the preseason conference player of the year. Hansen, who averaged 13.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game entering the contest, was limited to just six points and four rebounds.
Thacker began the week with an 11-point, eight-rebound effort against Stetson in The Bank of Kentucky Center on Thursday evening. She dished out two assists and collected one steal on the night as well.
On the year, Thacker is averaging 11.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game for the Norse and has scored in double figures 12 times this season. She has also collected 28 assists, 22 steals and 16 blocked shots.
CAREER WEEK: After setting a career high in points with 23 against Stetson to begin last week,
Lauren White set another personal best against Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday. The freshman guard from Edwardsville, Ill., dished out seven assists, including five in the second half, to help the Norse pull off the upset. Her previous career high was four, which she accomplished against Lipscomb on Jan. 25.
White has recorded 31 assists on the year, which ranks third on the team. She is averaging 8.1 points and shooting 80.9 percent (55-for68) from the free-throw line.
ON THE BOARDS: Through the non-conference portion of the schedule,
Kaitlyn Gerrety was averaging just 2.5 rebounds per game. However, over the first half of conference play, Gerrety is pulling down 5.8 boards per contest to raise her season average to 4.0 after grabbing eight against FGCU on Saturday night at The Bank of Kentucky Center.
The junior center from Cincinnati, Ohio, has come close to equaling her career high of 10 rebounds set last season against South Carolina Upstate three times this year. She grabbed nine boards against Tennessee Martin (Nov. 30), USC Upstate (Jan. 2) and Kennesaw State (Jan. 11).
SNAPPING STREAKS: With its 63-43 victory over Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday at The Bank of Kentucky Center, NKU snapped FGCU's 44-game regular-season conference winning streak, which led the nation.
The Eagles' last loss to an Atlantic Sun opponent came on Feb. 28, 2011, when South Carolina Upstate defeated FGCU, 75-74, in the last game of the regular season. Sarah Hansen is the only player remaining from their roster that year.
DEFENSE STRONG: NKU limited FGCU to 43 points on Saturday, which the Eagles have never scored fewer than in its history. The 20-point difference was the largest margin of defeat for FGCU since the Eagles joined the Atlantic Sun in 2007.
The Norse held the Eagles to 31.9 percent shooting from the floor, including just 30.8 percent from behind the 3-point arc, and forced FGCU into 21 turnovers. NKU also won the rebounding battle by a 36-23 margin to remain perfect on the year when outrebounding the opponent.
This season, the Norse are holding the other team to 63.6 points per contest. In addition to holding FGCU below 50 points, NKU kept Illinois State under that threshold as well for a 61-48 victory in The Bank of Kentucky Center on Nov. 13.
AT THE HALFWAY POINT: NKU posted a 7-2 record through the first half of its conference schedule. The Norse only suffered losses to Jacksonville (Jan. 18) and Stetson (Jan. 30) and picked up one of the most important wins in its NCAA Division I era against Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday.
NKU is on pace to finished 14-4 in the Atlantic Sun, which improves upon its 12-6 mark last season. At this point last year, the Norse were 4-5 in the Atlantic Sun and went 8-1 the rest of the way to help earn the team a berth to the Women's Basketball Invitational and ensure their 30th consecutive winning season.
