Northern Kentucky went into Mount Pleasant on Thursday night for a matchup that marked the first-ever meeting between the two programs at the Division I level, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for a team still searching for rhythm. With the season’s first starting-lineup change, Tae Dozier moving in and Donovan Oday shifting to the bench, the Norse delivered their most complete effort of the young year. From the opening possessions, NKU looked sharp, connected, and in control, and everything that followed reinforced just how ready this group was to take a step forward.

First Half

NKU Controls the Opening Stretch

Northern Kentucky set the tone immediately. Robinson came out firing, burying a deep trail three and staying aggressive on every opportunity. He got downhill, hunted shots, and set an early scoring rhythm for the offense.

NKU’s ball movement was clean from the start, and Elliott pushed the pace in transition while Wells controlled the glass. Even the small details put pressure on CMU’s defense: quick hits, early drives, and the willingness to keep the ball jumping until something opened up. Horn echoed that point afterward:

“So many times guys could’ve taken a shot but passed it up for an even better one.”

Defensively, NKU’s pressure rattled the Chippewas right away. CMU’s early possessions were full of forced drives, rushed looks, or balls poked loose in traffic. NKU didn’t convert every mistake into points, but they clearly dictated tempo and tone.

Central Michigan Struggles to Find Rhythm

CMU’s interior players kept them afloat early. Claerbaut worked the glass, and Mullen created from the mid-post. But the guards couldn’t consistently start actions. NKU cut off the top of the floor, forced passes sideways, and shrunk the paint whenever CMU tried to drive.

Even when CMU defended well for 20 seconds, NKU often made something late in the possession — a drive-and-kick, a post slip, or a second-chance look. CMU’s defensive stops were isolated moments, not momentum.

Bench Gives NKU Another Gear

The game shifted when NKU went to its bench. Nelson came in and immediately changed the pace with a layup and transition three. Oday attacked downhill and brought physicality. Dozier jumped passing lanes, sped up the game, and turned live-ball turnovers into fast-break chances.

Horn highlighted that depth afterward:

“We don’t have a singular guy we have to have play well. When everybody plays well collectively, we can be really dynamic.”

Sequence of the Game

Just before midway through the 1st half, Oday had one of the best plays of the night. He turned the ball over after making a spin move back into another defender, then chased down Brooks who had a 6 foot head start on him to stuff him at the rim. CMU kept possession, but on the baseline inbound Garner floated a lazy pass that Ethan Elliott dove on, and fired it to Oday. From there Oday attacked Whitaker one-on-one, drew the foul, and finished through contact for the and-one. Check out the play below:

CMU Finds Life Late, but NKU Answers

CMU found a brief spark late in the half when McIntire finally got loose and hit back-to-back threes. NKU answered quickly. Oday steadied things with a strong pull-up, and Robinson finished inside just before the break to take a 44-30 lead into halftime.

Second Half

CMU Opens the Half with Some Pushback

Central Michigan came out determined to reset the tone. Mullen attacked early, Adley got downhill, and they tightened the floor defensively. NKU hit almost a two and a half minute scoring drought to start the half and for a moment, CMU made the game feel tighter. That early lull let the Chippewas cut the deficit to its closest point of the night at 48–40.

NKU Reestablishes Control with Poise

Just when CMU had momentum, NKU snapped back. The drought ended when Oday stepped into a confident three and the whole team seemed to settle in immediately afterward.

Wells delivered a big moment shortly after: a slip on a baseline out-of-bounds action that led to a dunk. It was a clean, poised execution at a time when CMU was searching for a stop.

One of the night’s most chaotic plays was a missed free throw by Shawn Nelson that Wells got, but when trying to make a post move to score lost the ball and had to dive for it. What happened next was almost a jump ball, but the refs did not call it and Wells was somehow able to hand the ball off to Robinson who came over to help and turned around and scored a wide open layup. It wasn’t pretty, but it was the kind of winning play that NKU made all night.

CMU’s Offense Remains Heavy and One-On-One

CMU kept working through its bigs. Claerbaut and Mullen continued to produce around the rim and in the midrange, and Adley muscled his way to a few tough drives. But CMU never established rhythm. They relied too much on isolated shots and late-clock creations.

NKU’s guards made everything difficult. Every catch was contested, and every drive drew a dig or a strip attempt. Horn pointed out afterward:

“They had to make tough plays late. If that’s where their offense is coming from, we feel like we’re doing our job.”

NKU’s Depth and Pace Take Over

The final 12 minutes were all NKU. Gherezgher ignited an 8-point burst in roughly two minutes, blowing the game wide open. Nelson kept applying pressure. Dozier’s energy never dipped. It didn’t matter who Horn played; everyone contributed something. Check out Dan's scoring outburst that quickly pushed him into a double-digit scorer:

Final Numbers and Takeaways

After watching last night’s game, it’s hard to imagine the Norse playing much better this early in the season. Five games in, the defense looked locked in from start to finish. NKU held Central Michigan to just 0.838 points per possession, for context, Houston led the entire country last year at 0.808.

Northern Kentucky controlled the game wire to wire, never trailing and setting the tone on both ends. It adds up to their first road win of the season and their first victory over a Division I opponent.

From the start, NKU won this game with its defense. The Norse were active and disruptive on the perimeter, which not only forced turnovers but also kept the ball away from seven-footer Nathan Claerbaut. He was the matchup I was most concerned about going in, and NKU’s guards and forwards never let him become a real factor. NKU also just looked like the more athletic team. Physically, CMU didn’t have the burst or length to keep up, and it showed throughout the night.

Even though NKU finished with more total fouls, 18–11, the Norse defended without fouling for most of the night. In the first half, when the game was still within reach for CMU, NKU didn’t commit its seventh foul until just under the two minute mark of the half. That discipline paired with constant pressure, helped force 10 first-half turnovers from the Chippewas. Last night’s performance bumped NKU’s defensive turnover rate to 23.3%, which ranks 26th nationally, and their steal rate to 16.7%, the fifth-highest mark in the country.

Every 50/50 ball seemed to go the way of NKU. They made their own breaks by being the first on the floor and did it so much that in his postgame interview with the CMU radio team, their head coach, Andy Bronkema made note of it:

The secondary storyline was their quickness to 50/50 balls. That might’ve hurt more than the turnovers. There were at least eight plays where the ball was loose or tipped, and they came up with it and laid it in. You can’t drill that — it’s mentality and how you practice every day. When a team is flying around, creating turnovers, and winning the hustle plays, that’s a winning formula.

When you look at what fueled NKU’s “winning formula,” the lineup data jumps off the page. The group that performed best against Central Michigan was also the one that I believe blended the most skill with the most athleticism: Dan Gherezgher, LJ Wells, Donovan Oday, Donovan Rakotonanahary, and Tae Dozier.

This group logged a game-high 27 possessions together and was NKU’s most efficient unit on both ends. Offensively, they produced 20 points in just 14 possessions, and defensively they forced 4 turnovers, the most of any lineup Coach Horn used. They also allowed only 0.923 points per possession, the best mark among any NKU lineup that played at least 10 possessions. These are exactly the kinds of details the staff looks for when trying to identify the best lineup combinations. Metrics like this give a much clearer picture of impact than the traditional plus-minus, which can sometimes be misleading on its own.

Last night's game has the chance to be a great launching point for the Norse if they can keep playing with that kind of activity on the defensive end.

Northern Kentucky's Key Players

Donovan Oday: 27 MIN, 20 PTS, 7-13 FG, 3-6 3PT, 3-3 FT, 4 REB, 3 PF, 2 AST, 2 TO, 2 STL, 1 BLK
Kael Robinson: 27 MIN, 17 PTS, 6-10 FG, 4-5 3PT, 1-2 FT, 3 REB, 4 PF, 2 AST, 3 TO, 1 STL
LJ Wells: 31 MIN, 13 PTS, 5-8 FG, 0-1 3PT, 3-4 FT, 9 REB, 1 PF, 5 AST, 1 TO, 2 BLK, 1 STL
Dan Gherezgher: 24 MIN, 13 PTS, 5-14 FG, 3-8 3PT, 0-0 FT, 0 REB, 2 PF, 2 AST, 1 TO, 1 STL
Tae Dozier: 26 MIN, 9 PTS, 3-5 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-3 FT, 6 REB, 1 PF, 4 AST, 1 TO, 3 STL, 1 BLK
Ethan Elliott: 27 MIN, 7 PTS, 3-6 FG, 1-2 3PT, 0-0 FT, 1 REB, 4 PF, 8 AST, 2 TO, 3 STL
Shawn Nelson: 10 MIN, 7 PTS, 3-4 FG, 1-2 3PT, 0-1 FT, 2 REB, 0 PF, 1 AST, 1 TO
Donovan Rakotonanahary: 13 MIN, 4 PTS, 2-2 FG, 0-0 3PT, 0-0 FT, 2 REB, 0 PF, 2 AST

Central Michigan's Key Players

Nick Mullen: 21 MIN, 12 PTS, 6-6 FG, 0-0 3PT, 0-1 FT, 4 REB, 2 PF, 0 AST, 2 TO, 2 BLK, 1 STL
Logan McIntire: 24 MIN, 11 PTS, 3-10 FG, 3-9 3PT, 2-2 FT, 4 REB, 3 PF, 5 AST, 1 TO
Phat Phat Brooks: 28 MIN, 10 PTS, 2-10 FG, 0-2 3PT, 6-7 FT, 2 REB, 2 PF, 2 AST, 3 TO, 1 BLK, 1 STL
Nathan Claerbaut: 28 MIN, 10 PTS, 5-7 FG, 0-0 3PT, 0-0 FT, 6 REB, 1 PF, 0 AST, 1 TO
Tamario Adley: 26 MIN, 8 PTS, 3-6 FG, 0-0 3PT, 2-4 FT, 2 REB, 0 PF, 5 AST, 5 TO, 1 STL
Jaxson Whitaker: 23 MIN, 6 PTS, 2-4 FG, 2-4 3PT, 0-0 FT, 1 REB, 3 PF, 1 AST
Rodney Johnson Jr.: 14 MIN, 4 PTS, 2-5 FG, 0-1 3PT, 0-0 FT, 4 REB, 0 PF, 1 AST, 2 TO

	Northern Kentucky	Central Michigan
Field Goals (FG)	34-64 (53.1%)	25-53 (47.2%)
Three-Point FG (3PT)	13-27 (48.1%)	5-17 (29.4%)
Free Throws (FT)	9-13 (69.2%)	11-18 (61.1%)
Total Rebounds (Offensive)	32 (13)	32 (12)
Assists	26	17
Steals	14	3
Blocks	3	3
Turnovers	11	19
Points Off Turnovers	26	9
Fast Break Points	25	0
Points in the Paint	36	36
Personal Fouls	18	11
Largest Lead	27	0

Up Next- Eastern Kentucky @ Truist Arena 7 pm

NKU returns home Monday night to face Eastern Kentucky, a team sitting at No. 233 in KenPom and coming off three straight losses –Western Kentucky at home, followed by road setbacks at Vanderbilt and Kent State. The matchup also carries a small bit of symmetry for the Norse: Thursday’s win at Central Michigan was NKU’s first non-conference road victory in nearly two years, with the last one coming at EKU on December 17th, 2023. Now the Colonels come to Truist Arena as NKU looks to build on its best performance of the season and keep momentum rolling.

Follow all the action with Jim Kelch and Rick Broering on The Project 100.7/106.3 with pregame coverage starting at 6:30 pm on November 24th! You can also watch the game on ESPN+.