Karmen Graham

ROLLA, Mo. - Karmen Graham’s inside scoring and Northern Kentucky University’s stingy defense produced a 62-50 win over Missouri-Rolla on Saturday afternoon.

Graham scored 14 of her 19 points in the first half as NKU built a nine-point lead at the break. The 6-foot-1 junior post player also came through with a clutch three-point play in the second half as the Norse held off a late rally by Missouri-Rolla.

Graham added nine rebounds and made all nine of her free-throw attempts for NKU, which improved to 12-3 overall, 6-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Brittany Winner and Angela Healy each scored 11 points as the Norse won their sixth straight game.

“This was our best road victory of the season, and it came against a very good team,” NKU head coach Nancy Winstel said. “Other than the first three or four minutes of the second half, I thought we really executed our game plan. But we made big plays to win a really tough road game.”

Missouri-Rolla (11-3 overall, 5-2 GLVC) rallied from an early seven-point deficit to pull even at 15-all on two free throws by Nicole Dierking. NKU, however, closed the first half with a 14-5 run to take a 29-20 advantage at intermission.

The Norse extended their lead to 11 points early in the second half, but Missouri-Rolla battled back and pulled to within 40-37 with 9:12 left in the game on a basket by Jaime Forsberg. Healy and Katie Butler answered for NKU with baskets - both assisted by Karen Brackman - on the next two possessions to extend the Norse lead to 44-37.

Graham sealed the win for NKU with 1:43 remaining when she powered in for a basket while being fouled by Deosha Agnew. She completed the conventional three-point play by sinking the free throw to give the Norse a 55-44 lead.

Graham, the leading scorer in the GLVC, upped her season average to 16.1 points per game. She is also shooting 55.6 percent from the field and has made 80.9 percent of her free throws. In addition, Graham has a streak of nine consecutive games scoring in double figures.

NKU - which has not allowed an opponent to reach 60 points in a game this season - limited Missouri-Rolla to 31.1 percent shooting from the field and won the rebounding battle by a 39-36 margin. The Norse were 20-for-25 from the line, including 14-of-18 shooting in the second half.

Karyn Creager finished with eight points for NKU, and Nicole Chiodi had a team-leading four steals. Dierking led Missouri-Rolla with 19 points on 7-for-23 shooting from the field.

NKU will play host to Lewis (10-5 overall, 6-1 GLVC) at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Regents Hall. Lewis is in first place in the GLVC East standings, while NKU trails the Flyers by one game in the GLVC East.

NKU and Lewis split two meetings last season, with each team winning at home.

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