Sarah Woods’ jumper in the final seconds

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - Megan Nelson’s follow shot with 18 seconds remaining gave Southern Indiana a 60-59 win over Northern Kentucky University on Thursday night in Regents Hall.

Nelson grabbed an offensive rebound after a missed shot by Tiara Brown and scored to give Southern Indiana a 60-59 lead. NKU had two shots in the closing seconds, but a short jumper by Sarah Woods and a follow attempt by Connie Myers were both off target.

Woods scored 17 of her career-high 22 points in the second half to lead NKU, which dropped to 12-9 overall, 9-5 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Angela Healy and Karyn Creager each added 11 points for the Norse, who held a 58-52 lead with 4:21 remaining in the game.

NKU, however, committed three turnovers in the final four minutes and was outscored 8-1 to end the game.

“I’m very disappointed. I thought Southern Indiana came out and got after us in the first half, and we didn’t respond,” NKU head coach Nancy Winstel said. “I don’t think we played very well defensively at all. We threw the ball away too much.

“Finally, in the second half, we came out and played. We made a game of it. We were actually in control of the game, and we turned the ball over.”

Jamie Truitt led Southern Indiana (12-8, 5-8 GLVC) with 18 points. The Screaming Eagles led by as many as 10 points in the second half, but the shooting of Woods - who made four three-pointers in the second half - rallied NKU.

The Norse took a 55-52 lead when Creager buried a three-pointer with 4:49 left, and Woods extended the NKU advantage to 58-52 when she hit a trey with 4:21 remaining.

Angela Healy scores against USI

Southern Indiana, however, countered with a 6-0 run, capped by Brown’s basket with 2:14 left. Woods hit one of two free throws with 58 seconds remaining to give NKU a 59-58 lead, but Nelson’s follow shot lifted Southern Indiana to its first win in Regents Hall since Jan. 22, 1998.

“We did come back like we needed to,” Woods said. “We were up six, but we just gave up too many turnovers and easy shots. We just didn’t do what we had to do at the end to pull it off. We played better, but we didn’t do well enough.”

NKU shot 40.4 percent from the field and was 9-for-22 from three-point range. The Norse also won the rebounding battle by a 34-30 margin. Healy and Connie Myers each grabbed eight rebounds for NKU, while Brittany Winner added six boards.

In their first meeting this season at Evansville, Ind., NKU had posted an 81-55 win over Southern Indiana.

“I really don’t think it was them. I think it was us,” Healy said. “We really didn’t come prepared to play in the first half, so we beat ourselves I guess.”

NKU will play host to Kentucky Wesleyan at 1 p.m. Saturday in Regents Hall.