It seemed like it was going to be a victorious night for Northern Kentucky University Women’s Basketball Team, but with 3.8 seconds left on the clock, Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Week, Amber Shelton of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville hit the game winning shot to pull a 65-64 upset over NKU.
Shelton, a 5-foot-11 junior forward, just had one of those games where everything seemed to work. She finished with a game-high 24 points with 17 of them being in the second half.
“We’ve never played against her before because she’s a transfer. She’s an amazing player,” senior forward Brittany Winner said, according to a press release from NKU Athletics. “We tried everybody on her. We’d keep her in front and she’d just turn around and make that jump shot. You couldn’t stop her today. She just had one of those games.”
The Norse had a slow start to the game, but eventually built a 50-44 lead over SIUE with 11:19 remaining in the second half.
After that, Shelton took it upon herself to tie the score 50-50 by making six consecutive points. NKU went on a run and made the score 60-52, but with 1:08 left in the game, Shelton drew a foul and sunk both shots making the score 64-63, still in favor of NKU.
The Cougars started to run down the clock and Shelton ran in to make a short jumper giving SIUE its second straight road upset.
NKU’s junior center Angela Healy led the Norse scoring 21 points. Winner had a good game and finished with 16 points and nine rebounds. Junior guard Nicole Chiodi shot 10 points and had three assists.
SIUE shot 50 percent from the field and made nine out of 10 free throws, while NKU was 39.7 percent from the field, but out-rebounded the Cougars 35-29.
“I think Edwardsville is a very good team. They’ve brought in some recruits that have helped them including three Division I transfers,” Head Coach Nancy Winstel said, according a press release from NKU Athletics. “Their ability to put the ball on the floor and create is just great. We had a chance to win the game and give Edwardsville credit for hitting big shots.”
The Norse is 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the GLVC. They will return home to play Georgetown College Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. NKU will travel to Louisville, Ky., to take on Bellarmine University in a GLVC game Dec. 9 at 7 p.m.
