NKU women’s basketball played host to the IU Indy Jaguars on Saturday in the first half of a women’s and men’s basketball doubleheader. The Norse and IUI came into this game both looking to make it three wins in a row.
Both teams also came into this matchup as bottom-four teams in the conference in points allowed, but one team had other ideas for this one.
The scoring started off with a Macey Blevins dish to Abby Wolterman, the junior transfer from IUI, who laid it in to give the Norse an early two-point advantage. The Jags followed that up with a jumper from Azyah Newson-Cole to tie the game up. Wolterman would reintroduce herself to her ex-teammates with good footwork in the post to get open for an easy basket for the lead.
An IUI free throw would be sandwiched between buckets from Halle Idowu and Blevins to give the Norse an 8-3 lead heading into the media break.
A Blevins three pointer and Katie Davidson free throw line jumper would be the only points for the rest of the quarter as NKU took an 11-5 lead into the second quarter. NKU would finish the quarter shooting just 5-21, while the Jaguars’ struggles were even worse—registering more turnovers than made shots in the opening quarter.
The Norse would then start to find offensive momentum.
Wolterman would continue her hot start by capping off a fast break with a layup. Katie Davidson would make a contested layup to keep IUI within arms reach. That did not last long as Kalissa Lacy would drain a three from the corner and Blevins would convert an and-one opportunity. The great Norse run was finished off by IUI transfers Wolterman and Jaci Jones, who nailed a three-pointer to balloon the NKU lead to 24-7 before IUI called a timeout to figure things out.
NKU would seem to keep pouring it on as the game got back-to-back made threes from Wolterman and Mya Meredith that escalated the lead to 23 points. The lead would swell as it would take until just over two minutes left in the half for IUI to hit double-digit points. Blevins would score five straight points for NKU and Meredith would knock in a jumper to give NKU its biggest lead of the day at 27 points.
IUI would not go quietly into the half as a personal 4-0 run by Faith Stinson and a buzzer-beating three by Nevaeh Foster would send the Jaguars into the locker room on a 7-0 run as the score read 37-17.
IUI would continue that momentum into the second half as Davidson free throws and a perimeter jumper from Logan Lewis would find the bottom of the net to cut the deficit to 39-22. Meredith would bring some life to the offense as four straight points for her would give NKU a 43-22 lead. IUI would then muster up their own 6-0 run, stamped at the end by a beautiful no-look pass from Shania Nichols-Vannett to Camron Blank for the layup.
NKU would be able to get the lead back to 20 as Idowu contributed eight points during the run and a Kamora Morgan and-one would give the Norse a 52-32 lead. The Jaguars were able to get some scores, but were not able to stop the relentless NKU offense and defense as the quarter ended on a Noelle Hubert block at the buzzer to maintain a 59-36 lead for NKU.
IUI would never find themselves within single digits again for the rest of the afternoon as NKU won 80-63.
The IUI transfers would make their presence felt as a season high of 11 points for Wolterman and a career best eight assists for Jones would propel NKU to this win.
NKU won its third-straight game and improved its record to 6-12 and 3-4 in conference play. Their next game is on the road Wednesday against the Penguins of YSU. Tip-off is at 6:30 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.