The WSU Men’s basketball team moved into first place last Friday by beating the NKU Norse 69-67. The Raiders swept their season series with the Norse while improving to an impressive 13-2 at the Nutter center this season.
Over seven thousand fans piled into the Nutter Center for a game that was nationally televised on ESPNU.
The first half proved to be a competitive matchup. The score went back and forth between he two teams. When the buzzer sounded for halftime, the Raiders held a 32-30 lead. Everett Winchester had nine points to lead the team. The Raiders struggled to defend NKU’s Tyler Sharpe in the first half, as he went off for 14 points, including three three-point baskets.
The second half saw WSU take leads as big as 12. NKU made a run to cut the lead to three with under five minutes remaining. From there the teams kept it close but WSU got the win with a late second shot from true freshman Jaylon Hall. Loudon Love had a perfect second half with 10 points on five for five shooting. He led the team with 15 points while Parker Ernsthausen and Jaylon Hall added 10 points each.
After the game, Ernsthausen and Love spoke about the effect of such a large crowd and how this was a very important game. Ernsthausen looked back at last season as well and said “It means a lot after they got us three times last year. We won there earlier which is a lot but tonight was special with the big crowd. That was the biggest crowd I’ve seen in four years… they were a big part tonight.” Love added that, “”It was a high-emotion game like Parker said, huge crowd… but we still have work to do, three more games coming up.”
Coach Scott Nagy recognizes that the team didn’t rebound well, but they were able to persevere and get the win. “They whipped us on the glass… it’s not very often you get beat ten on the glass and win the game. We were good defensively and we didn’t turn the ball over.” He also added that, “it was great to have a crowd like this for our guys to play so well and so hard.”
WSU is back at the Nutter Center on Monday, Feb. 19 to take on Cleveland State. WSU will be celebrating senior night and will have a pre-game ceremony to recognize Grant Benzinger and Trey Stacey.
