HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Following four-straight road games, Northern Kentucky men's basketball returns home to the friendly confines of BB&T Arena. NKU hosts Youngstown State on Thursday, Jan. 16, in a game set for a 7 p.m. start.
 
Game Information
Northern Kentucky University Norse (12-6 Overall, 4-2 Horizon League)
Youngstown State University Penguins (11-7 Overall, 4-1 Horizon League)
Thursday, Jan. 16 – 7:00 p.m. (ET)
Highland Heights, Ky. | BB&T Arena (9,400)
TV: ESPN3 with Brady Laber (PxP) and Brad Redford (Color)
Radio: ESPN1530 with Jim Kelch (PxP) and Rick Broering (Color)
Stats: Live Stats
 
Tickets and Promotions
To purchase tickets online, please visit TicketMaster.com. Tickets can also be purchased at the Alice Sparks Ticket Office at BB&T Arena.
 
Thursday is Faculty & Staff Appreciation Night, where NKU faculty and staff receive two free tickets by showing their NKU All-Card at the box office. Northern Kentucky will also recognize more-than 150 student-athletes at halftime in its Student-Athlete Academic Recognition Night.
 
Two additional promotions are set for students, with the contest kicking off the 1,000 students for $1,000 (#1K41K). If 1,000 students check into the game using their All-Card, one lucky student wins $1,000. Lastly, the game will serve as a Throwback Thursday Student Theme night. Student are encouraged to wear their best 90s outfit.
 
Fast Break Points 
• NKU scored 54 points in the second half and cruised to a 96-71 win at IUPUI.
• NKU welcomes Youngstown State to BB&T Arena on Thursday night. The Norse are 9-9 all-time against the Penguins, including a 7-3 mark and 4-0 home record since reclassifying to Division I.
• The Norse are in the midst of a stretch of seven of nine being contested away from BB&T Arena.
• The Norse were picked to finish second in the Horizon League, receiving 295 points and five first-place votes. Wright State was picked first with 350 points and 28 first-place votes.
• NKU has been the most dominant team in the Horizon League over the last three seasons, amassing a 50-17 mark against league foes while winning four of the combined six league championships (regular season and tournament).
• Since the start of the 2016-17 season, NKU is a combined 84-36 (.700), has won the Horizon League regular season twice (2018, 2019) and league tourney twice (2017, 2019), and has played in both the NCAA Tournament (2017, 2019) or NIT (2018) every year. No other team in DI history has registered this level of accomplishments in its first three years with active status.
•  NKU is coming off of its second trip to the NCAA Tournament in the last three years, where it fell 72-57 to No. 3 Texas Tech, which finished as the national runner-up.
• NKU has been stingy on the defensive end, holding teams to 65.2 points per game, and only one opponent has scored more than 73 points against the Norse this season.
• NKU makes its hay with the nation's 10th-best 3-point field-goal shooting defense, limiting foes to just 27.0 percent.
• The Norse have ripped off 149 steals so far, a total that ranks 22nd in the nation. The team's 8.3 steals per game also rank 48th.
• Offensively, the Norse are letting it rain from long range this year. The team ranks 11th in the country in 3-point field-goal attempts (490) and 22nd in made threes (160).
• NKU is in the first year of the Darrin Horn era, as the Kentucky native is just the sixth head coach in the 49th season of the program. In his 10th year as a head coach, Horn has a career record of 183-117.
• G Tyler Sharpe is second on the team in scoring, pouring in 15.4 ppg and has made 43 threes on the season, which ranks 72nd in the country.
• Sharpe is coming off a career-high-tying 33 points against IUPUI, his fourth 30-point outing of the year.
• Though only in his third season as a Norse, Sharpe ranks 30th all-time with 991 points as a Norse, but needs just seven points to reach 1,000 for his career after including the two he scored at Louisville.
• G Trevon Faulkner has reached double figures in each of the last six games. The sophomore is averaging 12.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
• F Adrian Nelson had a career night at UIC with 13 points and 15 rebounds for his first career double-double, setting new career highs in both categories. He's averaging 7.0 ppg and 8.2 rpg in league play.
• After missing 10 games due to  injury, G Jalen Tate returned against Green Bay and has reached double figures in 4-of-5 games since. He is averaging 9.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
• G Bryson Langdon has started the last 15 games for Northern Kentucky and averaged 4.4 assists in those outings.
• W Adham Eleeda has averaged 9.9 points per game over the last four contests, which includes a career-high 14 at Detroit Mercy.
• Over the last six games, Eleeda has shot 41 percent (14-of-33) from three.
• F Dantez Walton was averaging a team-best 18.4 ppg on the strength of 54 percent shooting, which includes 42 percent from 3-point range, prior to being side-lined with an injury.
• In his last seven games against DI foes, Walton averaged 24.9 points while shooting 59 percent from the floor and 52 percent from behind the arc.
 
Last Time Out
Northern Kentucky dominated nearly every statistical category and Sharpe posted his fourth 30-point outing of the season in a 96-71 win at IUPUI. Sharpe poured in a career-high-tying 33 points, while adding three assists and two steals. Faulkner and Langdon also netted double figures with 15 and 12 points, respectively, as 11 of the 12 Norse that played scored. NKU shot 56 percent for the game, including a 37 percent showing from long range, and held the Jaguars to 38 percent from the field and 19 percent from three. Northern Kentucky led in rebounding (39-37), assists (22-14), points in the paint (40-32) and points off turnovers (19-10). As a team, NKU posted a whopping 2.2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
 
Scouting Youngstown State
Youngstown State, which was picked to finish sixth in the league, currently sits second at 4-1 in the league and 11-7 overall,  a half-game ahead  of Northern Kentucky in the league standings. The Penguins lone league loss came at the hands of their natural rival Cleveland State. Preseason All-Horizon League First Team member Darius Quisenberry paces the offense as the team's lone double-figure scorer at 15.3 points per game. Both Michael Akuchie and Naz Bohannon are close to the threshold at 9.4 and 9.2 ppg, respectively. Bohannon leads the team at 9.1 rpg. However, in league play, all three players have increased their output with Quisenberry  checking in at 15.8 ppg, Bohannon at 12.2 ppg and 10.2 rpg and Akuchie posting 12.0 ppg. YSU scores at a clip of 71.0 ppg and allows teams to post 68.0.
 
Series Stuff
The 18-game all-time series between NKU and YSU is tied at nine wins apiece, with the first meeting dating back to the 1976 season. Eight games were played during Northern Kentucky's Division II days. Since the Norse reclassified to Division I, they hold a 7-3 mark, are riding a five-game winning streak and are 4-0 at BB&T Arena versus the Penguins.