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FINDLAY, Ohio - Just like that, only a few miles from where his college basketball career began, Steven Wright’s brief but memorable stay with Northern Kentucky University ended Tuesday night. Arguably the best all-around player in Norse men’s basketball history, and definitely the greatest one-year performer in the program’s 36 seasons of competition, Wright could not save NKU from suffering a 66-42 loss to No. 7 Grand Valley State in the championship game of the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Region Tournament. The Norse, who finished with a 24-9 record, shot just 22.2 percent from the field and were 6-for-32 from 3-point range. In the second half, NKU was 7-for-37 from the field (18.9 percent) and 1-for-17 in its 3-point attempts. Grand Valley State (29-4) won the rebounding battle by a 49-35 count and earned the trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in Springfield, Mass. Wright, who played three years at Bowling Green State before transferring to NKU this season, earned Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year honors and has been the focal point of the Norse this winter. But the 6-foot-3 NKU highlight machine could only do so much against a powerful Grand Valley State team that two days earlier had knocked off GLVC Tournament champion Southern Indiana in the regional semifinals. “Grand Valley State is a great defensive team, and they made it hard to get the ball,” said Wright, who scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds in his NKU career finale. “This has been a new beginning to my life by coming to Northern Kentucky. From last August until now has been the best time of my life during my college career, and I have never met such great people. “I know at the GLVC Tournament, I never had experienced being around people that care about you as a person like that. We would order pizza, sit around and talk, and this has been so different than where I was before.” Wright, who entered the championship game averaging 17.1 points, was 3-for-16 from the field Tuesday night. “(Wright) is such a talented athlete - he can score from the outside, he can drive the ball. The more open space that he has, the better off he’s going to be,” Grand Valley State head coach Ric Wesley said. “So we did everything we could to try to keep him on the side, try to keep him on the outer third of the floor, so at least he didn’t have so much room to work with.”
The taller, deeper Lakers utilized the inside play of 6-10 twin towers Callistus Eziukwu (17 points, seven rebounds, four blocked shots) and Dan Redder (seven points, three rebounds and one block) to control the lane. Grand Valley State also received 17 points from guard Pete Trammell, who entered the game averaging 5.7 ppg. “Grand Valley State is the best team we played this year, and I am sure our guys will attest to that,” NKU head coach Dave Bezold said. “I don’t know how they lost a game this season. They are a fantastic team, and they did a great job shutting us down with their defense. “But like I told our guys during our last timeout they did a great job of getting us here, we are not going to remember them for this game. This is not their footprint on this program, but the fact they won 24 games, stopped the nation’s longest home winning streak at 59 games and took us to the regional championship game is how they will be remembered. “They put Northern Kentucky back on the map nationally in men’s basketball, and they should be applauded.” Grand Valley State owned a 28-22 lead at the break, but the Lakers used a 16-4 run early in the second half to build a 44-29 lead and were never threatened again. Eziukwu, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, keyed the run with nine points. “They are really tough inside, some of the best post players we have seen this year,” NKU center James Cripe said. “Anytime you go up for a shot inside, they are not far behind and you have to think about it.” Unable to find the range from the outside, NKU watched as Grand Valley State led by as many as 27 points in the second half. “We were so frustrated, we were just throwing it up there,” NKU senior guard Kevin Schappell said. “Our shooting percentage was awful tonight.” Anthony Teague led NKU with 12 points in his final game for the Norse. The 6-5 senior drained a trio of 3-pointers in the first half, but, after David McFarland hit a trey to begin the second 20 minutes, NKU proceeded to miss its next 16 attempts from behind the arc. “We just went cold, but don’t take away anything from Grand Valley’s defense, because it was very good,” said Teague. Wright, a graduate of Dayton Colonel White High School who thrilled Norse fans with his assortment of dunks and acrobatic shots this season, made his final field goal as an NKU basketball player one to remember. He attacked the basket from the right baseline and was challenged by two Laker defenders as he soared to the hoop. At that point, Wright double-clutched in mid-air, glided past the defenders to the left side of the basket and spun in an outrageous, how-can-anyone-from-this-planet-possibly-do-that reverse layup with 1:44 left in the game. That shot even made the Grand Valley State players shake their heads in disbelief and smile. A few seconds later, Schappell, Wright, Cripe and Teague took their final bows and received standing ovations from the NKU faithful. A year ago, NKU and Grand Valley State split a pair of regular-season games. The two teams met in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Division II Great Lakes Region Tournament at Owensboro, Ky., and the Norse escaped with a wild 106-102 victory over the Lakers in the Owensboro Sportscenter. It marked NKU’s first trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament since the 2002-03 season. |
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