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HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - The scouting report on Indiana-East describes a high-scoring basketball team that plays very little defense. And Indiana-East lived up to the second part of the scouting report Wednesday night in Regents Hall against Northern Kentucky University, which cruised to a record-setting 124-58 win over the visitors. The Norse drained a school-record 19 3-pointers - including 13 treys in the second half - en route to notching the largest margin of victory (66 points) in school history. NKU also tied the school record for most points in a half (66) and placed five players in double figures to roll past the Pioneers. NKU head coach Dave Bezold said while he expected to win, he warned his players before the game to not take any team for granted. "I asked our players, 'What did (Cincinnati) think they were going to do to us in our exhibition?' They beat us by like 50-60 points last year and all of a sudden this year, we popped up and had a 20-5 lead on them," Bezold said. "You play and respect the game. Indiana-East has had some things to happen to them, and they’ve lost a bunch of guys. You respect the game and respect that opponent by playing the game the right way. "You don’t set out the embarrass anyone and you do have to do things right. As a result, you’ll probably win the game, but you play it the right way." Indiana-East (4-8) entered the game averaging 95 points per contest and featured the national scoring leader in the NAIA in forward Joe Ramey (29.6 ppg). The Pioneers, however, also surrender nearly 110 points per game, and NKU (6-1) had no trouble reaching that number. Senior center Travis Rasso dominated the inside and poured in a career-high 31 points on 14-for-19 shooting from the field. The Boone County High School graduate also pulled down a career-best 14 rebounds in just 22 minutes on the court. "In high school at Boone County, I had a couple of 30 point games, but not many of them. I just wanted to stay aggressive and continue to go to the hole," Rasso said. "Staying aggressive is the best thing that you can do against a team like this. It doesn’t matter if they’ve got 7-footers out there or guys that are 6-2, you’ve got to stay aggressive. "Coach was telling us that our mind-frame in practice and in the game needs to be that no matter what name is on the jersey, you just have to play good basketball. Our assist-to-turnover ratio tonight was great. That is one of those stats that you can see that we were playing well tonight."
NKU, in fact, finished with 36 assists and had just 10 turnovers in the fast-paced contest. Scott Bibbins dished out a game-high eight assists, while Billy Finnell recorded seven assists and no turnovers. David McFarland - who leads the Great Lakes Valley Conference in assists-to-turnover ratio - handed out six assists with just one turnover, while Harrison Morton and Anthony Teague each finished with five assists. "I was very happy with the way we shared the basketball, and the result was that we shot a pretty good percentage," Bezold said, noting NKU's 59.5 percent from the field. Morton scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Teague knocked down six shots from 3-point range and totaled 19 points. NKU held Ramey to just 10 points on 3-for-14 shooting from the field. "(Vincent) Humphrey and (David) McFarland did a great job on Ramey," Bezold said. "They were focused on not allowing him to get any good shots, and the defense they both played was outstanding because he scores almost 30 points a game." Another big story within the game was the debut of transfer DeAaron Williams, who scored 18 points and grabbed four rebounds. The 6-foot-5 Williams, who joined the team Wednesday afternoon, finished 7-for-10 from the field and also buried four 3-pointers. "At first, I was tired. I was out there dying," said Williams, who played at Illinois Central College last season and averaged 16.5 points per game. "Overall, it was just a relief to finally get some things taken care of and step back out there on the court. It was fun. My teammates and my coaches invited me out there, so I just wanted to make the most of it." Bezold was also glad to have Williams available in the non-conference game, especially since the former prep star from Illinois has yet to practice with the Norse. "Number one, it was great to get DeAaron an opportunity to get on the floor without a lot of pressure, and number two, not having to worry about him knowing where to be. He was just able to go out there and play," Bezold said. "We have a number of practices before our next game, so he is going to be able to get more comfortable with the system and understand where we’re going. Everybody saw it - we need get his cardiovascular back under him because he is going to wilt very fast when the intensity picks up, but that is okay because we’re very fortunate to have him and he adds to our depth." NKU, which has won five consecutive games, will next be in action Dec. 28 at 7 p.m. against Massachusetts-Lowell in Regents Hall. The Norse also entertain North Alabama at 1 p.m. Dec. 29. |
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