Steve Purdon hits a jumper late in the game

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - It was only fitting that the play of Northern Kentucky University’s five seniors directed the Norse to a 91-79 victory over Missouri-St. Louis in Regents Hall on Saturday on Senior Day.

Pat Cary, Steve Purdon and Mike Kelsey combined to score 59 points in their final appearance at home as the Norse held off a second-half comeback by Missouri-St. Louis.

“The seniors came out and gave us a great cushion to work with in the second half,” NKU head coach Dave Bezold said. “We were very fortunate that Steve Purdon, down at the end when we were struggling offensively, made some big plays.”

The Norse (12-14 overall, 8-12 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference) went on a 26-8 run over the last 6:17 of the first half, which ended on a three-point shot by Purdon with 42 seconds remaining in the half. NKU shot 63.3 percent from the field and 60 percent from the three-point line to go into the break with a 20-point lead (57-37).

NKU opened the second half in the same way they ended the first. The Norse outscored the Rivermen, who fell to 9-18 overall, 5-15 in the GLVC, in the first three minutes of the half to extend their lead to 24.

Despite the size of the lead, Missouri-St. Louis did not give up. The Rivermen put together a run of their own to cut the Norse lead to five with 5:37 remaining in the game.

“We knew they were going to continue to play hard because they had a chance to go to the conference tournament still, so they were going to battle us all the way to the end,” Bezold said. “We really were hoping that they didn’t have a shot at it because maybe they would have stopped playing a little bit, but they didn’t. To their credit, they made it a ball game.”

Jordan Stowers had six assists Saturday

The Norse were able to respond to the run Missouri-St. Louis put together and hit eight free throws down the stretch to hold on for the victory.

Jonathan Griffin helped spark the Rivermen’s second-half run by grabbing seven of his game-high 12 rebounds and scoring 14 of his game-high 30 points in the second half. Cary paced NKU with 25 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots.

“Pat played excellent. He did exactly what we expected of him,” Purdon said. “There were times that they were guarding straight up, one-on-one. We feel anytime somebody tries to do that to Pat, he’s going to score every time like he did tonight.”

Purdon added 19 points for NKU, as fellow seniors Sean Rowland and Jordan Stowers combined for 10 assists, two steals and no turnovers. Derek Smith added 10 points and seven rebounds.

Kelsey, who now has 1,539 career points, passed Shawn Scott for seventh place on the all-time leading scorers list with his 15 points and stretched his streak of consecutive games for scoring double figures to 14. He also added four assists and three steals for the Norse.

NKU will play Indianapolis at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the GLVC tournament at Roberts Stadium in Evansville, Ind. If the Norse plan on making it to the NCAA Division II Tournament, they must come away with three wins and the tournament title.

“We really believe that we can beat anybody in this conference, and we can win three straight games,” Bezold said. “Now, we haven’t proven that we can beat one of the top teams yet, and that’s our challenge. We’re going to have to beat three of the teams in the top upper echelon, but we feel like we can do it and we’re looking forward to it.”