INDIANAPOLIS – Trevon Faulkner poured in 26 points, but the Northern Kentucky men's basketball team fell 69-58 to Oakland in the Horizon League Championship semifinals to Oakland. The Norse slide to 14-11 on the season, while Oakland improves to 12-17.
STAT LEADERS
· Faulkner finished with a game-high 26 points and just missed out on a double-double with nine rebounds for the Norse.
· Rebound machine Adrian Nelson pulled down a game-high 14.
· Bryson Langdon contributed 14 points and six assists.
TURNING POINT
· Cold shooting to start the second half by the Norse allowed the Golden Grizzlies to build a double-digit lead just four minutes into the frame. Oakland extended to as many as 17.
FIRST HALF SUMMARY
· Oakland came out on fire, hitting seven of its first 12 shots while building a 17-7 advantage.
· Northern Kentucky answered and hit five of its final seven attempts of the half.
· The Norse cut the early 10-point deficit in half by intermission, as the Golden Grizzlies led by five, 31-26.
· NKU made 34 percent (12-of-35) of its shots, while Oakland converted 40 percent (12-of-30).
· The battle of the boards was decisively in favor of the Norse, though, as they outrebounded the Golden Grizzlies, 24-16. Nelson had eight boards to lead the way for NKU.
SECOND HALF SUMMARY
· Scoring came at a premium for the Norse to start the second half. Oakland expanded out to a double-digit lead as NKU mustered just two free throws over the first six minutes of the half.
· Nelson and Langdon sandwiched a pair of buckets around one from the Golden Grizzlies, but Oakland hit another back-to-back scores that led to a Northern Kentucky timeout with 11:36 remaining while facing a 45-32 disadvantage.
· OU went on to extend its advantage to 17, 59-42, with 7:16 on the clock. But, NKU scored five quick points and called timeout.
· Langdon later buried a three to pull NKU within 10, 62-52, with 3:48 remaining.
· Shortly thereafter, Faulkner converted an old-fashioned three-point play to get the deficit to single digits, 64-55.
GAME NOTES
· NKU knocked down just 33 percent (23-of-69) of its shots, compared to a 45 percent (26-of-58) shooting effort from Oakland.
· The Norse also could not take advantage of 10-of-26 free throw shooting by the Golden Grizzlies.
· Northern Kentucky won the battle of the boards, 44-36.
· Faulkner finished one rebound shy of reaching a double-double and just two points off of his career high, which was a 28-point showing against Kent State this year.
· With Nelson's 14-rebound total, he finished the season averaging 10.0 rebounds per game on the season. He becomes just the fourth Norse to average double-digits on the glass in a season and the first since Todd Svoboda pulled down 10.9 rpg in 1991-92.
· With six assists and just one turnover on the evening, Langdon finished with 43 dimes and just 11 turnovers across the last seven games for the Norse.
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