Sunday, March 12, 2000
NKU men meet Waterloo
Norse take 13th straight loss at Wesleyan
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
OWENSBORO, Ky. — Like he has before every game in high school and college, Northern Kentucky junior guard Craig Conley watched a tape of Hoosiers.
Hard by the Indiana border in Saturday's second round of the Division II NCAA Tournament, Conley and his fifth-seed Norse couldn't pull off the Hollywood upset in the Owensboro Sportscenter, losing 66-62 to top-seed host Kentucky Wesleyan.
“It happens every time we come down here,” said Conley after watching the Panthers finish the game with a 24-13 run. “We get up on them and blow it in the last 10 minutes.”
Instead of living Hoosiers, NKU (26-7) watched a re-run of their 11-point loss here to the second-ranked Panthers 40 days ago. The Norse lost a nine-point, half-time lead and fell into a 64-64 tie with three minutes left before Wesleyan scored the last 11 points.
On Saturday, junior swingman Craig Sanders popped out at the top of the key and swished a 3-pointer that put NKU up 49-42 with 9:43 left to silence the crowd of 4,100 and send the defending national champions reeling.
But the Norse didn't score the next five minutes and managed just five baskets the rest of the way as the second-ranked Panthers (28-2) squeezed Northern on the offensive boards with their athleticism.
NKU coach Ken Shields is proud of the team he calls his “most overachieving,” and one that “didn't even have a conference player of the week.” But he'll crank up his search for an impact inside player today after Wesleyan pulled down 17 offensive rebounds, barged to 26 free throws and got in the bonus for the final 14:28.
While on the bus from the hotel to the arena, Shields warned his team not to send Weslayan to the foul line, where they had been 266 more times than their foes this season.
Shooting guard Lorico Duncan, the Great Lakes Valley Conference's leading scorer, scored six of his team's next seven points to pull Wesleyan even at 49, tying the game on a driving layup moments after making a 3-pointer when Leroy John kept the ball alive on the boards. Duncan finished with 18 points.
John, the conference's 6-foot-8 Player of the Year, took his cue on the way to a game-high 21 points and 15 rebounds. He bulled for a layup and then tip-dunked an offensive rebound to give Wesleyan a 55-51 lead with three minutes left.
“This year's team gutted it out and as it turned out, we needed a stud,” said senior guard Kevin Listerman. “We didn't have an answer for Leroy John or Duncan. We were minus that one player.”
Listerman, who has been a part of 104 wins in his four seasons, found it hard to believe it was over in the most dreaded of places, an Owensboro locker room.
NKU had Wesleyan fretting with a solid, sagging man-to-man defense that held the Panthers to their fewest points of the season.
But there were too many silly fouls at the beginning of the second half and Wesleyan Anwar Perry provided some foreshadowing when he flashed in front of Listerman's pass to Conley off a pick for a layup and go-ahead basket at 51-49.
Plus, NKU never got that one, critical 3-pointer, beginning when Conley rimmed one out with nine minutes left that would have made it a 10-point lead and ending when Sanders hurried one with 30 seconds left from the top of the key and the Norse trailing, 58-56.
Like Shields said, “If it goes in, we're doing cart wheels.”
They didn't go in as much as they did Friday against Northern Michigan, when NKU drilled 14 of 29 3-pointers. On Saturday, it was 7-for-25. Now Shields is 0-for-13 against Wesleyan on this floor.
“I thought we had them this time,” Shields said. “But what can you say about these guys? We went a long way without a guy on the all-league team.”
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