The Norse are down by two with Oakland’s Jamine Dupree-Hebert at the free-throw line. She sank the first free throw. Then,with confidence, she shot the second, hitting off the rim as Mya Meredith goes up, grabs the rebound and takes off running.
Meredith passes it to Anna Hamilton in stride. She puts the ball on the floor, hitting the jets. Hamilton, with a lane to the basket, gets hit by her defender. “Fweeeet,” the whistle blows, still in motion, she flips up the shot, hitting on the glass, “Swish,” she banked the shot home for the and one, tying up the game at 76 as the arena and the bench go wild.
Hamilton goes to the line to take the lead, and she gets into her rhythm. With herself calm, she takes the shot, “Swish,” she makes the free throw, coming up huge. With seconds left, Oakland can’t do anything with the ball as the buzzer sounds, the Norse win the game 77-76.
This win at the buzzer was huge for NKU, moving their record to 11-14 overall and 8-6 in Horizon League play. But with this loss, Oakland moves to 8-15 overall and 5-8 in Horizon League play.
The star for the Norse was none other than Hamilton. She stepped in for a struggling Taysha Rushton, putting up a career-high 12 points and coming up huge down the stretch.
NKU had three other players in double figures, with Karina Bystry leading in scoring with 19 points. Meredith was right behind her with 18 points, while also grabbing six rebounds and dishing out three assists. Maddie Moody also had six rebounds and finished with 14 points.
Even with the loss, Oakland Freshman star Makenzie Luehring posted a game-high 26 points, doing a little bit of everything on the floor.
The first half was all NKU as they shot the ball extremely well compared to the last game, where they struggled. In the first quarter alone, they shot 63% from the field, getting their way. The second quarter was about the same as they shot 50% from the field and 50% from three.
Oakland didn’t shoot it poorly in those quarters; it just came down to the Norse making more shots. NKU went into halftime with a 12-point lead, 44-32.
The third quarter is where the game got hot. The Norse were struggling to put the ball in the net, and Oakland took full advantage of that, chipping away at their lead. With two minutes left in the third, Filippa Goula put the team on her back, getting seven unanswered buckets to get the game within one.
With seconds left in the quarter Oakland was up, but this should have been a sign for the Golden Grizzlies, when took Hamilton things into her own hands, getting four points in 16 seconds to take back the lead to end the quarter up by three, 59-56.
The fourth quarter was a battle with both teams trading baskets back and forth as the Norse struggled to get the hoop in the net. Oakland made more of their shots, most of them being at the line, getting 12 points from there in the fourth quarter alone.
Oakland was up by four, looking like they would close the game out, but Bystry, with 21 seconds left, kept the game alive, hitting a three-point shot from the corner that banked in, cutting the game within one.
That’s when Dupree-Hebert got fouled, sending her to the line for two. She made her first one and missed her second, giving the Norse a chance to win it, which they did. Hamilton called the game off, and one sank the free two, getting the big victory at home.
Head coach Jeff Hans was proud of his team and the way they responded to the challenge, especially Hamilton.
“I’m really proud of how we answered. We didn’t fold. We’re very resilient. What we did tonight shows a lot of character about who we are, and I think how far we’ve come as a team,” Hans said. “To have Anna Hamilton step up like she did tonight, make big plays in the first half to really extend the lead, and then to make that game-winner, the layup. Stuff that we see a lot in practice, and she really let it shine tonight, and we’re proud of her for that.”
Hamilton has played sporadic minutes this season. In this game against Oakland, she had 16 minutes in her second-highest of the season and she was ready to take full advantage of the moment.
“They’ve instilled confidence in me from day one in practice. And so they just tell me every time in practice just to go out and play how I play in practice. And so it really all starts with them and my teammates. They all have given me confidence. So, I just took advantage of the opportunity,” Hamilton said.