CINCINNATI – The Northern Kentucky men's basketball program was faced with a dose of revenge as the Norse dropped a 90-66 decision to local rival Cincinnati in a non-conference contest inside Fifth Third Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The loss for NKU comes off the heels of the Norse's 64-51 victory over the Bearcats last season.
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Northern Kentucky – 66, Cincinnati – 90
LOCATION: Fifth Third Arena – Cincinnati, Ohio
RECORDS: NKU 1-3 (0-0 HL), UC 4-0 (0-0 BIG 12)
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
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Marques Warrick paced the Norse with 19 points on a 7-of-16 performance from the field.
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Sam Vinson chipped in 15 points to go with four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
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Keeyan Itejere made it three Norse in double-figures as he added 10 points and five boards.
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Michael Bradley recorded eight points and three assists as he ran the point for the Norse. He had just one turnover in 33 minutes of action.
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Trey Robinson (seven points),
Cade Meyer (four) and
LJ Wells (three) also scored for NKU.
- Northern Kentucky scored the first basket of the game and carried the momentum into a 12-9 lead with 13:50 left in the opening half.
- The Norse and Bearcats continued to battle back and forth as UC took over the lead. A three-pointer from Vinson made it just a one-point game at 24-23 with 6:37 remaining in the first. After a few trips back and down the court, a Vinson free throw made it 26-24 UC with 5:08 left.
- That is when the Bearcats made their move as UC ended the first half on a 19-7 run to take a 45-31 lead into the half.
- Cincinnati played the second half just like they ended the first. The Bearcats won the final 20 minutes by a 45-35 margin to close out the non-conference victory.
NEXT UP
Northern Kentucky will welcome Texas A&M – Corpus Christi and LIU to Highland Heights for the holiday as NKU hosts the Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky Toyota Dealers Thanksgiving Tournament inside Truist Arena. The Norse will face the Islanders on Wednesday, November 22 at 6 PM ET and LIU on Saturday, November 25 at 4 PM. Corpus Christi and LIU will also battle on Friday, November 24 at 2 PM.
Tickets for the
clash with the Islanders can be purchased here and
admission for the LIU contest can be found here. Tickets to the Corpus Christi and LIU game will be free of charge.
FOLLOW NKU NORSE MEN'S BASKETBALL
Get in the game and follow Northern Kentucky's NCAA Division I college basketball team through
@NKUNorseMBB on Twitter,
@nkunorsembb on Instagram,
nkunorsembb on Facebook and
subscribe to the NKU Norse Youtube channel.
