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HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - Less than two minutes into the second half Thursday night, Northern Kentucky University's four-game winning streak appeared to be toast. Indianapolis owned a 38-28 lead, was battering NKU on the boards and looked to be in control. That, however, is when Brittany Winner took over. And by the time she was finished, NKU's winning streak had been extended to five games. Winner scored 17 of her 21 points in the second half as NKU rallied for a 62-54 victory over Indianapolis in Regents Hall. The 5-foot-10 senior forward finished 8-for-11 from the field and grabbed six rebounds as NKU won its fifth consecutive game. "I thought Brittany Winner made a concerted effort to get more aggressive offensively in the second half, because in the first half she really wasn’t," NKU head coach Nancy Winstel said. "When she did, it just lifted the whole team." Keyed by Winner, NKU used a 21-2 run to take a 49-40 advantage with 9:41 left. She began the spurt by making a pair of free throws, and Karyn Creager followed by a conventional three-point play. With Indianapolis employing a 3-2 zone defense, Winner capped the big run by draining back-to-back 3-pointers to give NKU a 49-40 lead. Those shots also sapped the energy out of Indianapolis. "I knew at halftime coach said that we were 0-for-6 on our 3-point attempts, but that wasn’t really on my mind," Winner said of her treys. "I just had an open look, and they were sagging off into the zone, so you had to take it." "One thing that I noticed was that we got a couple of fast breaks on them because they weren’t getting back in transition. That kind of sparked our energy," added Winner, who provided plenty of late-game heroics for NKU last season. "Then we just kept on taking it to them and giving them that inside-outside look. "At the end of the first half, I felt that we were just kind of throwing up shots without moving the ball inside. In the second half, we got it in more and worked the ball around, and then we had some good looks. I think that’s what turned it around." Creager finished with 13 points for NKU, which improved to 12-5 overall, 6-4 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Angela Healy added 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Katie Butler added eight points off the bench for the Norse, who shot 48 percent from the field.
Winstel praised Creager's second-half defense on Indianapolis guard Mandy Geryak, who pumped in 13 points before the break. In the second half, Geryak scored just six and finished with 19 points. "Karyn did a nice job defending her in the second half. She really made her work," Winstel said. Creager, who netted 10 points before halftime, did the job as a defender after the break. "She has such a quick release, and she hit two right away in the first half," Creager said of Geryak, a transfer from Xavier. "So in the second half, I was just trying to be all over her because they were setting a lot of screens for her. She’s a good player and takes it to the hole pretty nicely." In the first half, NKU shot 52.2 percent from the field, but Indianapolis grabbed 10 offensive rebounds and held a 21-9 edge on the glass to take a 34-28 lead at the break. "I thought they just hustled the heck out of us," Winstel said. "You have got to give those kids a lot of credit because they played with a lot of hustle. We finally played a good second half. I told our kids that if we didn’t play better in the second half, we were going to get beat by 15 or 20. To their credit, they did." Indianapolis finished with a 39-31 advantage on the boards as Karla Mast pulled down 11 rebounds. The Greyhounds, however, were just 5-for-28 from the field in the second half and could not find an answer to Winner. Nicole Chiodi added seven rebounds and a game-high five assists for NKU. The Norse blocked nine shots, led by Cassie Brannen with three rejections. Winner - who passed 800 career points as a college player - added two blocks and had two assists. The Minster, Ohio, native, who played at Division I Elon (N.C.) for a season before transferring to NKU, has a total of 805 career points. In last season's GLVC Tournament championship game against Drury, Winner poured in a career-high 30 points to lead NKU to the title. She was also named the most valuable player of the GLVC Tournament. NKU will play host to Saint Joseph’s at 5:30 p.m. Saturday as part of the 2007 Homecoming. The Norse are ranked sixth in the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Region poll.
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