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ST. LOUIS - Tim Green scored 17 points to lead Missouri-St. Louis to a 71-63 upset over No. 25 Northern Kentucky University in the Mark Twain Building on Thursday night. NKU, which jumped into the NCAA Division II national rankings for the first time in five years earlier this week, had its four-game winning streak snapped. The Norse dropped to 13-3 overall, 7-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Missouri-St. Louis is 7-9 overall, 2-6 GLVC. The Tritons built a 32-20 halftime lead by shooting 51.9 percent from the field and holding NKU to 29.4 percent accuracy. “The bottom line is you can’t shoot 29 percent from the field in the first half and allow them to shoot more than 50, especially when they shoot in the 40s for the year,” NKU head coach Dave Bezold said. “We gave them some confidence early on after they had three offensive rebounds on the first possession. We battled back in the second half, but we did not play well enough to win.” Senior guard Mark Hawkins scored 10 points to lead NKU, which played as a nationally-ranked team for the first time since March 11, 2003. Freshman guard Dennis Gagai added nine points for the Norse, who were 10-for-26 from 3-point range. “It’s disappointing because we finally put ourselves on the map with a national ranking, and we had an opportunity to build on that,” Bezold said, “but the road does this to teams, and we need to bounce back in a hurry.” Paul De Chellis and Paul Paradoski each added 14 points for Missouri-St. Louis, which converted 83.3 percent of its free throws and finished at 52.5 percent from the field. The Tritons also won the rebounding battle by a 27-20 count and held off a late Norse rally that saw a 56-42 Missouri-St. Louis lead shrink to 64-60 with 1:48 remaining. De Chellis, however, made two free throws to extend the Tritons’ advantage to 66-60, and Green added two more charity tosses with 33 seconds left to make it 68-60. Two years ago, Missouri-St. Louis defeated NKU, 67-64, on Joey Paul’s 3-pointer at the buzzer in the Mark Twain Building. The Norse own a 15-6 lead in the all-time series with the Tritons. NKU concludes the road trip Saturday afternoon against Missouri S&T at Rolla, Mo. The Norse still hold sole possession of first place in the GLVC East Division, a half game ahead of both Kentucky Wesleyan (6-2) and Lewis (6-2). Saint Joseph's and Indianapolis are each 6-3 in the GLVC and one game behind NKU.
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