The game is tied up at 71 in overtime; it has been a battle, with 13 lead changes and eight ties. With 46 seconds on the clock, the Norse came out of the media timeout looking to score.
NKU gets into their offense quickly, passing the ball around. The ball lands in the freshman Maddie Moody’s hands. She scans the floor, finding nothing and puts the ball on the deck.
Moody, with a full head of the team, drives downhill in the midst of three red jerseys. She gets the ball up off easily, “swish,” scoring the goal. Cheers erupt throughout Truist as the Norse take the two-point lead, 73-71, with 21 seconds left.
NKU’s defense held strong the rest of the way, winning the game in overtime 77-71. USI and NKU used to be conference opponents in the Great Lakes Valley Conference before NKU’s jump to Division I in 2012. USI made the jump to Division I this season in August.
Taysha Rushton and Karina Bystry led the way down the stretch for the Norse. Rushton had 20 points with nine points in the first half, then had 11 in the second half off the bench. Early into the fourth quarter, she had two quick threes, one coming late into the shot clock as she went 4-10 from three and 6-8 from the line.
After having a quiet first half with zero points, Bystry exploded for 16 points. She shot six three, making four and had five rebounds. She started off overtime for the Norse with a quick two in the paint and played great defense down the stretch.
USI’s forward Chole Gannon gave the NKU defense problems, going off for a game-high 21 points. She also had 12 rebounds and four blocks, going 7-18 from the field. Gannon battled down low all game against Abby Wolterman, who fouled out of the game, but had five rebounds.
Maddie Moody notched her first-career double-double, going for 15 points and 12 rebounds. She had the game-clinching layup to push the Screaming Eagles away.
This was the Norse’s first overtime game of the season and one of their closest games of the season so far and Head Coach Jeff Hans believes it will prepare them for league play and that they were able to learn.
“I think it prepares us for league play. We haven’t been in many close games. On the losing end of most of those early on here and then played very well against Drake and did what we needed to, and was able to pull that away by 20 plus,” Hans said. “So to be in that competitive environment, you’ve got Toledo here, you’ve got this one here that we’re able to learn and figure out how we need to do things, and our rotation down the stretch and who needs to play as we get ahead into league play and throughout the rest of the year.”
The big games they’ve had at the start of the season will help NKU win in multiple different ways, Hans believes. They face Green Bay, the Horizon League champions from last year, on Tuesday night.
“Styles of play, some athleticism, some styles of different styles of play that we’ve seen, and that’s what’s what you do in the non League and how we handle pressure, which we didn’t do a great job for a while today of handling some of the pressure that we’ve seen in the past,” Hans said. “So again, keep getting better, keep working on that as we go a couple of days here before we play on Thursday. But you know those things are all important for us as we prepare.”
Rushton had a huge made three late into the shot clock in the fourth quarter to tie it up, as she heard her teammates yelling at her.
“I’m pretty sure I heard a teammate say, ‘You gotta shoot it,’ and I just threw it up,” Rushton said hysterically.