 |
By Tom Ramstetter, NKU Sports Information HIGHLAND HEIGHTS,
Ky. - Cassie Brannen scored 20 points and blocked four shots as
the Northern Kentucky women’s basketball team cruised past
Saint Joseph’s, 69-39, Thursday night in Regents Hall. NKU also maintained a first-place tie with Indianapolis in the GLVC East Division. The Greyhounds defeated Bellarmine, 61-58, on Thursday to set up a first-place showdown at NKU on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. The Norse set the tone Thursday by blocking eight shots in each half. “I just want to see good defense,” head coach Nancy Winstel said. “Personally, I would prefer to see a good denial-post defense and then if they catch it, then you block well. I like a combination of denial-post defense, making that offensive player work their butt off to get the ball, and then if you block it or defend, then I think that is terrific. You can’t just live with one aspect of the game, but this team does a masterful job of doing that. So good for them as long as they’re not fouling.” Brannen, who became the Norse career leader in blocks last Saturday, led the Norse with four rejections and now has 140 career swats. Healy and Nicole Chiodi added three blocks each, while Brackman and Kendra Caldwell each added two. “I think it’s really neat that we have a lot of players inside who block shots, but our outside players were blocking, too,” Brannen said. “That is an awesome thing to have as a record. Our guards were playing really good defense. They were able to block shots just as well as the inside players were.” Healy led the Norse with seven rebounds, and Chiodi and Caldwell added six apiece. Brannen grabbed five boards. The Norse fell behind early in the first half and trailed 15-13 with just more than 10 minutes to go before halftime. Healy tied the score with a layup with 10:12 left and followed with another at the 9:05 mark to put NKU up for good, 17-15. “I thought our focus wasn’t where it needed to be and I thought Saint Joseph’s was,” Winstel said of the early struggles. “Here you have a team in Saint Joe’s that is having a tough year but they have a lot of pride. They’re going to come out and get after it. They saw that we had a lot going on here but we’re excited about it. It was an opportunity for us to play a lot of players. I didn’t think it was pretty and we didn’t play all that great. It was just an opportunity to play a lot of kids and get a 'W' at home.” NKU closed the half on a 19-3 run and was never seriously threatened in the second half. “Obviously Saint Joe’s has been struggling this year, and you could just look at their record and tell that,” Brannen said. “We knew that, and I don’t think we came out as strong as we usually do, and they took advantage of it. It wasn’t long before we knew we had to pick it up, and we did.” That brings up Saturday's farewell to Regents Hall, the final regular-season game in the history of the facility. “It will be special, plus, it’s a huge game,” Winstel said. “So we have to keep our focus, and maybe tonight helped us know that on Saturday we can’t get distracted by outside factors. It’s really a wonderful time for our team, and all that’s going on, but at the end of the day, you have to be focused on those 40 minutes. And we’re going to need to do that on Saturday." |
||
