20–0 and 17–0 Runs by Titans Overwhelm Norse in Road Loss
Northern Kentucky struggled to find consistent footing from the opening tip and never truly settled into the game. Missed opportunities, foul trouble, and long scoring droughts kept the Norse playing from behind, and while there were brief stretches of fight and shot-making, they were almost always followed by breakdowns on the other end in a 90-77 road loss.
First Half
Strong Opening, Defensive Pressure Early
Northern Kentucky set the tone immediately. Dan Gherezgher opened the game with a three, and LJ Wells followed with an interior finish, showing early intent after his career night last time facing the Titans. Oday answered an early Lovejoy bucket, and after a brief exchange that had the score tied at 7–7, the Norse began to impose themselves defensively. Tae Dozier jumped a passing lane for a steal and score, then another forced turnover led to an Oday basket in transition. NKU went to the under-16 media timeout up 13–9, having already forced four Detroit Mercy turnovers and playing downhill on both ends.
Foul Trouble Opens the Door
Momentum shifted quickly as whistles piled up. Detroit Mercy defended Oday aggressively, forcing back-to-back travel calls, and Wells picked up his second foul at the 13:34 mark on a Lovejoy drive that turned into an and-one. The Titans took the lead on the missed free throw putback, and the game tilted hard from there. Tyler Spratt buried a corner three to spark a run, Lovejoy added a midrange jumper, and Lance Stone knocked down a corner three after a shot fake on Kael Robinson. What started as a 15–9 NKU lead, flipped into a 24–15 Detroit Mercy advantage, forcing Coach Darrin Horn to stop play.
Spratt Heats Up as the Hole Deepens
The timeout did not slow Detroit Mercy’s momentum. Spratt continued to torch the net, drilling another three to extend the run to 20–0 and push the lead to 29–15. Shawn Nelson finally broke the drought with a composed baseline jumper off a pump fake, but the Titans kept pressing. Kael Robinson picked up his second foul with 8:38 left, putting NKU at seven team fouls with more than eight minutes remaining. Spratt then buried an end-of-shot-clock three, his fourth of the half, as Detroit Mercy surged to a 34–19 lead while shooting 6–8 from deep.
Oday Responds to Keep NKU Alive
With the half threatening to get away, Donovan Oday steadied the Norse. He knocked down back-to-back threes to cut the deficit to 11, then answered again later after Spratt buried his fifth triple to tie his career high threes with six minutes still left in the half.
After two offensive rebounds, Gherezgher drilled a three to trim the margin to eight, and Oday closed the half with another three and two free throws to pull NKU within five. Detroit Mercy answered at the buzzer with a Legend Geeter putback, sending the teams to halftime with the Titans up 44–38. Detroit Mercy shot 55.2% from the field and 8–12 from three, led by Spratt’s 18 and Lovejoy’s 11, while NKU leaned on Oday’s 15 and Wells’ 10 despite being outrebounded 20–13 at the break.
Second Half
Early Whistles and a Cold Start
Detroit Mercy set the tone coming out of the locker room. Lovejoy opened the half after an offensive rebound, and the Titans immediately leaned into their physicality. NKU struggled to find any rhythm, opening the half 1–10 from the field and missing opportunities at the free throw line as the deficit grew. Tae Dozier missed two free throws but briefly injected life with a steal that led to a lob dunk from Oday in transition. Lovejoy continued to work out of the high post before picking up his third foul just under the 18-minute mark, but the Norse could not capitalize. Seven combined fouls were called in the first four minutes, disrupting any chance for flow and keeping NKU from stringing stops together.
Titans Stretch the Margin Behind Shot-Making
Detroit Mercy took full advantage of NKU’s offensive struggles. Stone’s running bank shot pushed the lead back to 11 at 53–42, and moments later Tyler Spratt knocked down his seventh three in transition to cap a quick 10–0 run in just over three minutes. That shot made it 58–42 and forced a Norse timeout. The break did little to stop the bleeding. Stone followed with a stepback three to make it 61–42, as the Titans continued to punish every breakdown and NKU’s margin for error disappeared.
Norse Fight Back After the Under-12 Media
The response finally came late in the stretch. After being outscored heavily to open the half, NKU ended a 17–0 Titan run with a Dan Gherezgher three, then a steal and and-one finish from Oday to pull within 65–47 at the under-12 media timeout. Shawn Nelson helped fuel the push by doing the little things, carving out space on the glass and extending possessions. He grabbed seven rebounds in 25 minutes of action, giving the Norse extra chances to claw back into the game despite continued struggles at the line.
Late Push Falls Short
NKU continued to chip away. Gherezgher converted an and-one three and followed with a layup, and after Spratt answered with his own and-one three, Nelson responded with a dunk off a steal to force a Titans timeout. Out of that break, Detroit Mercy turned it over on the inbound and Oday buried a three to cut the deficit to seven at 74–67. Lovejoy halted the momentum with a backdoor and-one on Gherezgher, and the Norse never fully recovered. Oday hit another three to trim it to nine before the under-four media, and free throws from Robinson and Oday made it 83–74, but Detroit Mercy closed the door at the line. Stone put the final stamp on the night with a late three, sealing a 90–77 Titans win.
Final Numbers and Takeaways
Detroit Mercy’s control of the game came down to two massive runs, one in each half. A 20–0 run in the first half and a 17–0 run in the second completely flipped the game. During those stretches, Northern Kentucky struggled to generate clean looks, and even when shots were available, the Norse could not convert. Ethan Elliott did not play in this game after suffering an injury against Wright State.
Despite all of that, NKU did extend a remarkable offensive trend. Donovan Oday scored 33 points, marking the Norse’s fifth straight game with a 30-point scorer, a Division I record. Unfortunately, that number also reflects how often NKU has been forced to play from behind during this stretch. The Norse have now lost four of their last five games, with Oday accounting for three of those 30-point performances. He also knocked down a career-high five threes against the Titans, continuing to carry the offense through difficult stretches.
The frontcourt, however, struggled to make an impact. Wells finished with just one rebound in 25 minutes and did not score in the second half after posting 10 points before the break. He sat during the closing stretch as NKU lost the rebounding battle by nine, an area that consistently tilted the game toward Detroit Mercy during key moments.
Kael Robinson’s shooting struggles reached a historic low. He finished with three points, all from the free throw line, and went 0–14 from the field. That marks the worse shooting night in NKU’s Division I history, surpassing Marques Warrick’s 0–12 performance at Washington on November 9, 2023. Even more notable, it marks just the 13th instance since 2010 across all of Division I where a player has shot 0–14 or worse, according to Stathead.
One small positive for Robinson was reaching the 2,000-point mark for his career in this game. Unfortunately it could not have come in a worse game for him and is a game he would much rather forget than celebrate.
The night was not for lack of opportunity. The NKU staff ran multiple sets designed to free Robinson on the perimeter and inside, and he generated a number of clean looks. None fell. After his confidence peaked at Milwaukee, this performance marked a clear season low, both statistically and visually, as the Norse continue searching for stability on the offensive end. Coach Horn had this to say postgame about Robinson's struggles:
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been as positive or pumped a kid up as much as I have Kael Robinson in the last week, and it’s just not happening right now.”
After an early NKU burst, Detroit Mercy controlled the game for most of the night, finishing at 56% from the field. Redshirt freshman Tyler Spratt was the story for the Titans. He knocked down eight of the team’s 12 three-pointers and added a free throw, finishing with a career-high 28 points. Once he saw a few go in early, every look seemed to follow. Spratt grew increasingly confident, pulling up freely in transition and punishing NKU any time they failed to get matched up.
Defensively, the Norse rarely found consistent answers against the Titans unless it came via a steal or a forced turnover. NKU scored 29 points off 15 Detroit Mercy turnovers, but those plays accounted for a large share of the Norse’s defensive success, as clean half-court stops were hard to come by. After holding Detroit to just 0.78 points per possession in the first matchup, the Titans generated 1.125 points per possession this time around, the second-highest defensive mark NKU has allowed all season, trailing only the 1.143 surrendered at Green Bay.
Orlando Lovejoy delivered a strong bounce-back performance after scoring just nine points in the first meeting between the teams. He poured in 24 points, doing most of his damage from the midrange. Detroit Mercy’s staff made a clear adjustment, shifting Lovejoy away from ball-dominant drives. Instead, he consistently cut into space, caught on the move, and rose up for quick turnarounds without putting the ball on the floor, a wrinkle that gave NKU problems all night.
With the loss, the Norse fall to 2–4 at Callahan Hall over the last six seasons and drop to 6–6 in Horizon League play after opening conference action at 5–2.
Northern Kentucky’s Key Players
Donovan Oday: 39 MIN, 33 PTS, 11-19 FG, 5-11 3PT, 6-8 FT, 5 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 0 BLK, 4 PF, 3 TO
Dan Gherezgher: 34 MIN, 20 PTS, 7-14 FG, 5-10 3PT, 1-1 FT, 6 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL, 0 BLK, 4 PF, 2 TO
LJ Wells: 25 MIN, 10 PTS, 3-5 FG, 0-2 3PT, 4-5 FT, 1 REB, 3 AST, 2 STL, 0 BLK, 3 PF, 0 TO
Tae Dozier: 36 MIN, 6 PTS, 2-6 FG, 0-4 3PT, 2-4 FT, 4 REB, 3 AST, 2 STL, 3 BLK, 4 PF, 1 TO
Shawn Nelson: 25 MIN, 4 PTS, 2-5 FG, 0-2 3PT, 0-2 FT, 7 REB, 0 AST, 2 STL, 0 BLK, 4 PF, 2 TO
Kael Robinson: 26 MIN, 3 PTS, 0-14 FG, 0-8 3PT, 3-4 FT, 7 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 1 BLK, 3 PF, 0 TO
Detroit Mercy’s Key Players
Tyler Spratt: 36 MIN, 28 PTS, 8-10 FG, 8-10 3PT, 4-7 FT, 6 REB, 6 AST, 0 STL, 0 BLK, 3 PF, 0 TO
Orlando Lovejoy: 32 MIN, 24 PTS, 8-14 FG, 0-1 3PT, 8-10 FT, 1 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0 BLK, 4 PF, 4 TO
Lance Stone: 31 MIN, 16 PTS, 6-10 FG, 4-6 3PT, 0-0 FT, 2 REB, 4 AST, 0 STL, 0 BLK, 2 PF, 4 TO
Legend Geeter: 30 MIN, 12 PTS, 5-10 FG, 0-1 3PT, 2-3 FT, 10 REB, 6 AST, 0 STL, 1 BLK, 2 PF, 2 TO
Detroit Mercy
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Northern Kentucky
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|---|---|---|
| Field Goals (FG) | 30-54 (55.6%) | 25-63 (39.7%) |
| Three-Point FG (3PT) | 12-20 (60.0%) | 10-37 (27.0%) |
| Free Throws (FT) | 18-28 (64.3%) | 17-27 (63.0%) |
| Total Rebounds (Offensive) | 41 (11) | 32 (14) |
| Assists | 17 | 12 |
| Steals | 3 | 8 |
| Blocks | 3 | 4 |
| Turnovers | 15 | 8 |
| Points Off Turnovers | 14 | 29 |
| Fast Break Points | 18 | 17 |
| Points in the Paint | 28 | 26 |
| Personal Fouls | 24 | 25 |
| Largest Lead | 23 | 6 |
Up Next- @ Oakland 2/1 | 3pm
The path to a bounce-back does not get any easier for Northern Kentucky. The Norse head up the road to face Oakland, a team sitting at 9–3 in Horizon League play, with two of those losses coming against Wright State. One injury to monitor is Oakland big man Isaac Garrett, who is likely to be unavailable after rolling his ankle against Detroit Mercy last Saturday.
