Northern Kentucky fell to Central Michigan Saturday afternoon in front of 2,309 fans. The Norse fans showed up to see an offensive flamethrower and a highly competitive game. They got the latter, but the offensive performance was ice cold.

The two teams combined to shoot 55-118 from the field and 7-38 from the 3-point line. The difference in this one was the free throw performances. Central Michigan drew 20 fouls from the Norse and turned those into 22 free throw attempts, making 9. NKU drew 18 fouls, getting to the line 18 times, making just 9 of those.

After going into the halftime break with NKU leading 26-22, both offenses were a bit more dynamic in the second half. The Chippewas closed the game on a 10-3 run to put the game away despite a fantastic duel between Willie Foster (21) and Phat Phat Brooks (27) down the stretch.

NKU won the battle in the paint, however, they lost the battle on the offensive glass 18-13 and second chance points 18-6. The Norse were unable to contain CMU’s big man Conrad Luczynski was a force in the paint with 12 boards. He and Jayson Petty had 4 offensive rebounds each, and Jacob Bascom pulled down 3 himself.

For the second time this week, a significant concern stood out on the court. NKU seemed to be lackadaisical, or just not playing with the passion that head coach Darrin Horn’s teams always have. This was most notable on the defensive rebounding side of the ball, but was a general observation from the defense overall.

The Norse offense is currently searching for any kind of consistent rhythm. They went 23-61 from the field, 2-21 from deep, and 9-18 from the free throw line. Perhaps more concerning is when you turn your attention to the assist and turnover numbers. While the Norse had just 9 turnovers, they only had 9 assists this afternoon on 23 made baskets. The Norse are the No. 292 team in the country in assists per field goal made, a stat that they were No. 99 in the nation just a season ago. The lack of ball movement has led to a lot of isolation basketball from Willie Foster and Eric Acker. This team, while talented, cannot win without playing as a team.

Postgame, Coach Horn said something that we had noticed throughout the game: Teams have game film now, and can scout. They can see just how electric Acker and Foster can be in the open court. Hunter spent the first half on the baseline near the CMU baseline. Every time that Willie Foster touched the ball, the bench would yell “Willie”. It’s a minor thing, but it was clear: the defense was not going to let him slash to the rim like he looks to do.

While Foster ended up with 21 points, he had just 9 points in the first half. The Chippewas absolutely made it their top priority to stifle him. He was able to get loose in the second half and try to carry the Norse to victory but coach Horn was still critical of him. He stated that while he’s an “elite talent”, he’s not an “elite player” in this league yet. He was complementary of his scoring, but criticized him stating he needed to do the little things that translate to winning a bit better. He was also clear that he’s a freshman and this is part of the natural process.

Postgame, coach Horn was also happy with his defense, despite stating they need to do better on the rebounding side of things.

“I thought our first shot defense was excellent,” Horn said.

However, as discussed above, the Norse were unable to keep CMU off the glass, leading to the loss. He also put some of the onus on the offense to step up.

“When the offense is as bad as it was, the defense is under a lot of extra pressure,” Horn said.

Coach Horn closed the presser by shouting out new Vice President and Athletic Director Mike Odom for the efforts to get fans to the arena. The fans responded in a great way, coming out and bringing the energy that NKU needed. He apologized to the fans for not giving them a better performance and said they’d get better and to keep coming out this year.

While there are a plethora of things to clean up, the Norse still have everything in front of them. Their schedule continues to lighten up a bit as they move towards the Horizon League play, starting with Berea Thursday evening. Fans were (understandably) critical of the move to bring in Berea for a game, however, the timing of this one is great for the Norse. Instead of having 10+ days off, they now get to practice Sunday-Wednesday and have a game, keeping them on a great schedule. A game against an NAIA program brings them a great opportunity to gain confidence as the schedule tightens up.