HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Northern Kentucky women's basketball has advanced to the semifinals of the Horizon League Championship for the first time under head coach
Camryn Whitaker. The Norse will take on No. 2 seed Green Bay on Monday, March 9 at 2:30. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and the winner advances to play the winner of No. 1 IUPUI vs. No. 6 Cleveland State in the championship game at noon on Tuesday, March 10.
LAST TIME OUT: The Norse continued run through their opponents in the postseason, leading No. 5 Milwaukee by a point at the half before surging ahead for a 78-58 victory.
Ally Niece led the way with a career-high 27 points to go with seven assists, while
Ivy Turner also posted a career mark of 21 points and
Molly Glick added 12. It marked the first time since March 2, 2018, that NKU had two players score at least 20 points in the same game. On the defensive end, Turner,
Carissa Garcia and
Emmy Souder each swiped three steals, and
Kailey Coffey pulled down 12 rebounds. With the victory, NKU recorded its 20th win of the season, a first in the Division I era.
TOURNEY TIME: Through two games in the 2020 Horizon League Championship, the Norse have dominated their opponents across the board, recording a 47-point win over Detroit Mercy and a 20-point victory over Milwaukee. In those two games, NKU shot a combined 49.2 percent from the field, as well as 36.2 percent from beyond the arc. The Norse have also been aggressive on the boards with a whopping +14.0 rebounding margin, and have also recorded a +8.5 turnover margin to go with a 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio.
POSTSEASON HONORS: With the announcement of the Horizon League's postseason honors on Monday morning, three Norse hauled in distinction. Niece and Glick were both named to the All-Horizon League Second Team, marking the first time since the 2014-15 season that NKU has had two all-league performers, while Turner was named to the all-freshman team.
OUT WITH A BANG: Niece had the best offensive weekend of her collegiate career to close out the regular season, earning her the distinction of Horizon League Player of the Week. It marked the first time since Jan. 25, 2016, that a Norse had earned the honor. Niece averaged 21.5 points per game, doing so at 53.3 percent from the field and 58.3 percent from beyond the arc against Detroit Mercy and Oakland. The sophomore also averaged 5.0 assists, 1.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game.
FRESHMAN PHENOMS: Northern Kentucky is the only institution to have had two rookies named the Horizon League Freshman of the Week two times apiece. Garcia is the most recent recipient after she averaged 15.5 points per game in victories over UIC and IUPUI, including a career-high 20 points and 4-for-7 from beyond the arc against the Flames. She also earned the distinction on Dec. 9 following her performance against No. 2/2 Louisville, in which she led the team with 13 points and five assists.
Turner has also been making an immediate impact in her rookie campaign, starting in all 31 contests for the Norse. The Danville, Kentucky, native is third on the team in scoring with 8.9 points per game, and is the most utilized player on the team at 30.3 mpg. Turner also averages 2.1 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game. She was named the Horizon League Freshman of the Week for the second time this season on Jan. 13 after averaging 10.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game against UIC and IUPUI. Earlier on Dec. 2, she earned her first weekly distinction after helping the Norse record three victories over Central Arkansas, Jacksonville State and FIU. Turner had double-digit scoring efforts in each game, averaging 12.7 ppg at 55.0 percent from the floor. She also added 5.3 rpg and dished out five assists while nabbing three steals.
BRAINS AND BRAWN: On Feb. 20, junior forward Coffey was honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) as an Academic All-District member for the second season. Coffey is one of just seven student-athletes out of 42 Division I honorees with an unblemished grade point average. In addition to her stellar classroom performance, Coffey is NKU's leading rebounder and has had eight double-digit rebounding performances this season. She is now eligible for Academic All-America honors, which will be announced on Monday, March 9. Coffey also repeated as a Horizon League All-Academic Team honoree, which was announced on Feb. 27.
NORSE VS THE HORIZON LEAGUE: During Horizon League play, the Norse finished among the top of the league in several statistical categories, ranking in the top-four in scoring offense (66.6 ppg), scoring defense (59.1 ppg), scoring margin (+7.5), rebounding margin (+5.1), 3-point field-goal percentage (30.6 percent), blocks per game (3.0), steals (7.5) and turnover margin (+1.9). Individually,
Grayson Rose ranked second in the league with 1.6 blocks per game, while Niece ranked third in assists per game (3.9), seventh with a 1.43 assist-to-turnover ratio and ninth in scoring (12.6 ppg). Coffey pulled down 8.21rpg to rank fifth in the league, Turner's 1.3 steals per game ranked eighth and Glick's 1.5 triples per game ranked 10th.
MILESTONE TRACKER: On Dec. 1, Glick was sent to the free throw line following a technical foul called on Florida International. Making both shots gave the redshirt-senior her 1,000th career point, making her the 30th Norse to hit the milestone in program history. Glick is also just the second player to score 1,000 points in the Division I era. Christine Roush was the first fully D-I player to hit 1,000 career points, as she finished her 2012-16 career with 1,439 points. Melody Doss (2011-15) also reached 1,154 points in her career, but played her freshman campaign in the Division II era. Glick currently has 1,239 career points and is 13 points away from cracking NKU's all-time top-20.
Glick also has 207 career 3-pointers, overtaking Michele Tuchfarber (1997-2001) for third on NKU's all-time career 3-pointers list. She has made at least two 3-pointers in 17 of NKU's 30 contests. The redshirt-senior has started in all but two games in her collegiate career, good for second all-time (122). Her next start will put her in a tie for first with Roush.
A pair of juniors is also climbing the ranks in the NKU laurels, as Rose currently has 89 career blocks, good for seventh on the all-time list, and her 37 blocks on the season are just two away from cracking the single-season top-10 list. Coffey has also been making her way up the all-time rebounding list, currently sitting at 13th with 664 career caroms and is 67 away from breaking into the top-10.
SCOUTING GREEN BAY: The preseason league favorite Phoenix faced their fair share of struggles during the league slate, but ended the regular season on a six-game winning streak to climb the standings and earn a coveted double-bye as the No. 2 seed in the tournament. Green Bay is led by All-Horizon League First Team honoree Frankie Wurtz, who is first on the team in scoring (15.6 ppg), 3-pointers made (70) and steals (55), while also sitting at second on the squad in assists (64) and third in rebounding (4.9 rpg). Caitlin Hibner also earned postseason honors with a spot on the third team, as the redshirt-junior is second in scoring with 11.0 ppg and pulls down 6.9 rpg to pace the squad. As a team, Green Bay is one of the best in the country in taking care of the ball, ranking 10th nationally with a 1.35 assist-to-turnover ratio and 11th with 11.8 turnovers per game. The Phoenix have been posting 68.2 ppg on 42.7 percent shooting, holding opponents to 60.7 ppg and 36.9 percent from the floor.
Green Bay holds a 10-2 advantage in the all-time series with the Norse, which dates back to NKU's joining the Horizon League in the 2015-16 season. In the most recent meeting on Feb. 1, Northern Kentucky stunned the Phoenix with a 63-43 victory inside BB&T Arena, marking Green Bay's worst regular-season conference loss in 30 years.
