On Saturday Feb. 20, the NKU women’s basketball team played in the NKU gymnasium Regents Hall on “Throwback Night”, defeating the North Florida Osprey 67-29 on what was a night to tribute the days before The Bank of Kentucky Center.

Before moving to TBOKC in 2008 the Norse found a great amount of success in Regents Hall as the men’s team compiled a record of 388-139 at the gym, playing there from 1971 until the first game at The Bank of Kentucky Center, a preseason game against Louisville in 2008. In addition, the women’s basketball team won two national championships during years in which their home games were played at Regents Hall, in 2000 and 2008, respectively.

A few of the current players, including junior Christine Roush, had never played in the gym before Saturday night.

“It was really exciting,” Roush said. “We probably had the same number of fans that we have at The Bank of Kentucky Center, but having them here seemed like really crowded and having a nicer home atmosphere. It was really exciting.”

Roush led all leading scorers in the game with 14 points in one of the biggest blow-outs for the season for the Norse.

NKU Head Coach Dawn Plitzuweit said it was “different, but a lot of fun” to play at Regents Hall.

“Sometimes you’re in a different scenario, different environment and your players respond really well and our players certainly did tonight,” Plitzuweit said.

Plitzuweit has more history at the gym than anyone on the team, despite only being head coach at NKU for three years.

“My freshman year at college I played at Michigan Tech University and the first time Michigan Tech qualified for the NCAA tournament was in 1991 after my freshman year and we played our first NCAA tournament game at Regents Hall,” Plitzuweit said. “That was my first experience at Regents Hall.”

She also recounts her first game as a head coach at Grand Valley State, playing NKU and beating the Norse, although not at Regents Hall.

Plitzuweit also faced NKU two other times in her coaching career, once in a tournament at Regents Hall, the other in the NCAA tournament. The Norse at the time were led by Plitzuweit’s predecessor, NKU Hall of Famer Nancy Winstel.

According to Plitzuweit, the game against North Florida was moved to Regents Hall due to a scheduling conflict at The Bank of Kentucky Center.

“We tried to have the game the next day, on Sunday, but that did not work out in North Florida’s schedule,” Plitzuweit said. “They have a game the following Wednesday and so do we, so it just didn’t work out.”

The event being held at The Bank of Kentucky Center over the weekend was a conference for junior high students sponsored by a Christian-based organization called Christ in Youth. They hold conferences year-round all over the country to provide an opportunity for children to show their faith in a worship setting.

With the possibility of the NKU basketball teams hosting a conference tournament game, there is no word from the university as to whether or not those games would conflict with events currently booked at The Bank of Kentucky Center, which includes a high school basketball tournament in the beginning of March.