Kevin Reinhardt

ST. LOUIS - Kevin Reinhardt stopped a prolific scorer in the second half Thursday night, and, in doing so, the sophomore forward also helped halt Northern Kentucky University’s four-game losing streak.

Reinhardt, a sophomore forward and a graduate of Campbell County High School, held Missouri-St. Louis forward Jonathan Griffin to just two points in the second half as NKU rallied for a 63-55 win over Missouri-St. Louis in the Mark Twain Building. Griffin, the high-scoring Missouri-St. Louis forward, scored 15 before halftime as the Rivermen built a 31-29 lead at the break.

In the second half, Reinhardt took over with his defense on Griffin.

Reinhardt guarded Griffin the entire second half and held the junior forward to just one field goal on 1-of-7 shooting from the floor. Reinhardt also collected three blocked shots and four rebounds.

Reinhardt also scored nine of his 10 points in the second half as NKU held on for the victory. The Norse jumped out to a 27-16 lead with 5:24 left in the first half, but Missouri-St. Louis (2-9, 1-6 Great Lakes Valley Conference) used a 14-0 run to take a 30-27 advantage when Griffin drained a three-pointer.

“In the second half when they made a run, we responded,” said NKU head coach Dave Bezold.

Kevin Schappell scored 11 points as the Norse improved to 6-6 overall, 3-4 in the GLVC. NKU made 20 of its 24 attempts from the free-throw line in the second half and won despite shooting just 31.6 percent from the field during the final 20 minutes.

“As long as we keep stepping forward, we still have a lot of home basketball games remaining,” said Bezold.

Derek Smith and Harrison Morton each added nine points for NKU, which will play at Southern Indiana at 4:15 p.m. Saturday. Smith grabbed a game-high nine rebounds for the Norse.