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HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - On a night when many clutch shots were made in Regents Hall, Quincy's Andre Muse connected on the biggest field goal of the evening in the closing seconds to keep the 20th-ranked Hawks unbeaten. Muse hit a 15-foot jumper from the left side of the lane with three seconds remaining to give Quincy a 70-68 victory over Northern Kentucky University on Thursday night. Seconds earlier, the Norse's Billy Finnell had tied the game at 68-all with a driving layup. Quincy held the ball for a final shot after Finnell's tying field goal, and the Hawks placed the ball in Muse's possession. The 6-foot-5 junior guard found the bottom of the net with a jumper, and NKU immediately called timeout. David McFarland found Finnell with the inbounds pass near midcourt , and the sophomore guard dribbled down the right side. He attempted a desperation 3-pointer that missed at the buzzer, and Quincy defeated NKU for the fifth straight time during the past three years. "You think they’re going inside, and we took that away. The guy (Muse) made a tough play - a 15-footer off the dribble," NKU head coach Dave Bezold said of Muse's shot. "He doesn’t show that he can do that all the time, so we have to live with that. Maybe if he had a little better pressure on him, but we didn’t." Muse finished with a game-high 21 points on 9-for-12 shooting from the field for the Hawks, who improved to 6-0 overall, 1-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Joel Box added 14 points and nine rebounds for Quincy, which shot 60.4 percent from the field. Harrison Morton scored 17 points, dished out three assists and blocked two shots for NKU, which dropped to 3-2 overall, 0-2 in the GLVC. Steven Wright added 16 points and seven rebounds, while teammate Travis Rasso scored 12 points. Morton was 6-for-7 from the field and also added two steals in 31 minutes of action off the bench. The 6-foot-4 junior forward credited Muse for hitting a clutch shot at the end. "They screened me at the top of the key, and I was supposed to switch. The guy made a really tough shot," Morton said. Quincy took a 40-37 halftime lead when Ryan Walker connected on a 30-foot shot at the buzzer. The Hawks eventually built a 52-43 lead with 12:57 left, but NKU rallied and took a 62-61 advantage on Morton's conventional three-point play with 4:11 remaining. Muse, however, answered by swishing a 3-pointer to give Quincy a 64-62 lead, and the teams battled back and forth the remainder of the game. NKU shot 57.9 percent from the field in the second half to stay in contention. "The game changed just a little bit. It slowed down and there weren’t as many points scored in the second half," Bezold said. "We gave up 60 percent shooting in the first half . We changed our lineup a little bit. We had great looks inside. Rasso and (James) Cripe had some really good looks inside, but we didn’t finish a couple of them. Then there weren’t as many good looks off the dribble in the second half." Finnell finished with six points, five assists and three steals. Mark Hawkins added six points on a pair of 3-point field goals, and Kevin Schappell scored five points. NKU has not defeated Quincy since Dec. 1, 2003, when it held on for a 75-73 win in Regents Hall. Next up for NKU is defending regional champion Southern Illinois at Edwardsville. The Cougars visit Regents Hall at 3:15 p.m. Saturday. |
