Three-Point Barrage Powers Norse Past Green Bay, 96–76

Northern Kentucky didn’t just win, they took control and never gave it back. After grinding through a physical first half, the Norse erupted offensively, spacing the floor, crashing the glass, and turning defensive pressure into a runaway second half. By the time the final horn sounded, NKU had turned a tight game into a statement 96–76 win over Green Bay.

First Half

Ice Cold Start Before Either Offense Could Breathe

It took a while for this one to look like a college basketball game. Both teams clanked their opening threes, then traded stop after stop in a rugged defensive stretch that set the tone. Green Bay finally cracked the seal when Marcus Hall buried a three, but the bigger story early was Northern Kentucky’s offensive drought. The Norse opened 0–14 from the field and were scoreless for the first five minutes, sitting 0–6 at the under-16 media timeout.

LJ Wells kept them afloat the only way he could. With Green Bay sending a second defender at him on nearly every post touch, Wells muscled his way to the line for NKU’s first points and made multiple trips there as the Norse tried to steady themselves. After a pair of Phoenix turnovers led to backcourt steals, Wells returned to the stripe again, but the scoreboard still read 9–2 with NKU searching for a first made shot.

That finally came around the 10:30 mark when Wells scored inside to break the drought. From there, the game finally loosened. O’Hara answered, Donovan Oday drilled a three, and the Norse began to find rhythm on the defensive end. Donnie Rakotonanahary and the NKU defense forced a shot clock violation, and Kael Robinson followed with a strong drive and finish after an 0–4 start from three. A pass deflected out of bounds sent things to the under-8 media with Green Bay still in front, but momentum was starting to tilt.

Wells Carries the Load, Robinson Heats Up

Wells was relentless. He scored again to give NKU eight of its first 15 points, fighting through constant doubles and contact. Green Bay briefly countered with a quick 4–0 burst that forced an NKU timeout, but the break only gave Wells more runway. He exploded out of the huddle with a violent slam that jolted the building and the bench.

Moments later, Dan Gherezgher ripped a swipe steal that ignited transition. Oday scooped the loose ball, attacked downhill, and finished through contact for an and-one opportunity. He missed the free throw, but the sequence flipped on a challenge that kept the ball with NKU. Robinson made Green Bay pay, knocking down a three that capped a five-point swing and delivered NKU’s first lead of the night at 22–21.

From there, the Norse defense kept stacking stops. Robinson attacked again off a turnover for a layup, Wells finished another interior touch, and NKU’s pressure forced more Phoenix mistakes.

Norse Close With a Surge to Take Control

A brief clock malfunction created a strange pause, but NKU used the reset well and kept scoring. Robinson splashed a trail three to break a tie and give the Norse a 28–25 edge, and suddenly the offense looked nothing like the group that missed its first 14 shots. Wells and Robinson carried the scoring load, combining for 21 of NKU’s first 28 points.

Oday added a stepback three, Robinson buried another triple, and an 9–0 Norse run flipped the entire feel of the half. Green Bay answered with a Ruedinger three, but Oday pushed pace the other way and drew a transition foul that gave Justin Allen his third of the half.

The turnaround was dramatic. After that brutal 0–14 opening stretch, NKU closed the half shooting 12–18 from the field, leaned on timely defense and transition offense, and walked into the locker room up 36–30 with full momentum.

Second Half

Physical Start, Wells Sets the Tone

If the first half ended with momentum, the second half started with force. Green Bay picked up three fouls in the opening seconds, immediately putting themselves on their heels. LJ Wells went right at it, driving and finishing over Wilkins, who had just collected his third foul.

Justin Allen answered with an and-one on the other end but missed the free throw, and NKU went right back to work inside. Wells and the Norse dominated the glass, creating extra chances and cashing one in over Wilkins again. Kael Robinson followed with a strong seal and finish that pushed the lead to double digits and forced Green Bay to feel the game slipping.

Then came the highlight. Ethan Elliott slipped a perfect touch pass through traffic to Wells, who detonated at the rim for a slam that brought the building to life and stretched the margin even further.

Threes Start Falling, Norse Blow It Open

Green Bay tried to punch back, but every answer was met with another NKU strike. Allen and Dan Gherezgher traded threes, Allen earned another trip to the line, and Gherezgher countered with a tough finish to keep the cushion steady at 56–43.

From there, the offense hit another gear. Donovan Oday and Elliott scored on back-to-back trips, capping a stretch of six straight makes that pushed the lead to 60–43 and forced a Green Bay timeout. The Phoenix bench was animated, but NKU was in full control.

Ryan Tolliver got caught on the defensive end, then immediately made up for it with an offensive rebound and kick-out to Robinson for three. On the next possession, Robinson passed up a clean look and swung it to Gherezgher, who buried another triple. Just like that, it was 66–47 and a 20-point Norse lead with more than nine minutes to play.

Daggers From Deep and a Statement Finish

Any hope of a late push faded quickly. Wells powered in his 20th point to restore a 20-point margin near the eight-minute mark, and when Green Bay strung together a brief 5–0 run, Oday erased it with a three off an offensive rebound.

Gherezgher turned the game into a shooting display. Green Bay failed to secure a rebound, and he punished them with his fourth three of the half. Minutes later, he buried his fifth, stretching the score to 79–60 with under five minutes left and sending fans toward the exits.

Oday kept pouring it on with another triple to make it 82–62 at the under-four media timeout. Then came the exclamation point. Off a turnover, Oday pushed in transition and lofted a perfect lob to Tae Dozier, who hammered home the alley-oop dunk that sealed it in style. Northern Kentucky didn’t just close. They put a stamp on it.

Final Numbers and Takeaways

After the early drought, NKU took firm control of the game. LJ Wells anchored the offense from the start, and once the staff challenged him to stay aggressive, he took over. He attacked the paint, lived at the line, and played with a relentless edge that set the tone for the rest of the night.

Green Bay never fully capitalized on NKU’s brutal opening stretch. Even after the Norse began 0–14 from the field, the deficit never reached double digits. Once the shots started falling, the game flipped quickly. NKU shot 33–53 the rest of the way, a blistering 62.3%, fueled in large part by 14 made threes, the most in a conference tournament game of the Division I era for the program.

Kael Robinson and Dan Gherezgher mirrored the team’s arc. Robinson found his rhythm late in the first half, while Gherezgher erupted after the break, knocking down all five of his threes in the second half. Both played with total confidence, spacing the floor and stretching Green Bay’s defense until it finally snapped.

Two underlying factors played a big role in NKU’s win: execution out of timeouts and sharp defensive adjustments. The Norse scored 19 points on after-timeout possessions, consistently turning dead balls into clean looks. The biggest sequence came after NKU successfully challenged an out-of-bounds call following an Oday missed free throw. With possession retained, the staff drew up a set that turned into a five-point swing and a major momentum boost.

NKU also benefited from a scorer’s table issue that mistakenly reset the shot clock. Instead of a rushed, broken possession in the closing seconds, the Norse gained another chance to organize, draw something up, and get a controlled look. Small moment, but meaningful.

As expected, Northern Kentucky leaned almost entirely on man-to-man defense. The Norse showed zone just once and even forced a steal out of it, but the main difference was how they handled the post. NKU rarely sent doubles, choosing to guard Green Bay straight up on the block. The Phoenix don’t feature a traditional back-to-the-basket scorer, and even when touches came inside, NKU trusted its one-on-one coverage.

That approach allowed the Norse to stay home on cutters, which is the heartbeat of Green Bay’s offense. The Phoenix rely heavily on movement, basket cuts, and timing actions to create scoring chances. By staying disciplined and denying those lanes, NKU disrupted the flow and forced tougher shots.

Amid all the perimeter shooting, two highlight plays still stood out. The first was a beautiful touch pass from Ethan Elliott in the lane that led LJ Wells perfectly to the rim. Wells circled under the basket, rose up on the other side, and hammered it home for one of the smoothest finishes of the night.

The other was the exclamation point. In transition, Donovan Oday pushed the break and floated a perfect lob to Tae Dozier, who rose up and hammered it home for a soaring finish that brought everyone to their feet. A highlight dunk that felt like the final stamp on the night. Check it out below.

Green Bay put up respectable offensive numbers, shooting better than 50% from the field, but lacked the firepower to mount a serious comeback once the deficit pushed past double digits. Preston Ruedinger didn’t score his first points of the second half until late, and by then the game had already tilted firmly in NKU’s favor.

C.J. O’Hara and Justin Allen delivered solid performances, but Marcus Hall was relatively quiet, and the Phoenix never generated the sustained run they needed. Once NKU seized control early in the second half, Green Bay couldn’t find another gear to climb back into it.

Northern Kentucky’s Key Players

LJ Wells: 38 MIN, 26 PTS, 8-12 FG, 0-0 3PT, 10-12 FT, 9 REB, 2 PF, 4 AST, 2 TO, 0 BLK, 1 STL
Kael Robinson: 36 MIN, 22 PTS, 8-17 FG, 5-10 3PT, 1-2 FT, 6 REB, 2 PF, 1 AST, 0 TO, 1 BLK, 0 STL
Dan Gherezgher: 32 MIN, 19 PTS, 6-15 FG, 5-9 3PT, 2-2 FT, 4 REB, 4 PF, 4 AST, 1 TO, 0 BLK, 2 STL
Donovan Oday: 33 MIN, 18 PTS, 6-12 FG, 4-7 3PT, 2-3 FT, 4 REB, 2 PF, 2 AST, 0 TO, 0 BLK, 2 STL
Ethan Elliott: 34 MIN, 5 PTS, 2-7 FG, 0-2 3PT, 1-2 FT, 4 REB, 2 PF, 9 AST, 1 TO, 0 BLK, 2 STL

Green Bay’s Key Players

Justin Allen: 36 MIN, 18 PTS, 7-14 FG, 1-1 3PT, 3-4 FT, 4 REB, 3 PF, 1 AST, 1 TO, 0 BLK, 0 STL
C.J. O’Hara: 32 MIN, 18 PTS, 6-10 FG, 0-2 3PT, 6-6 FT, 4 REB, 2 PF, 0 AST, 2 TO, 0 BLK, 0 STL
Preston Ruedinger: 38 MIN, 13 PTS, 5-9 FG, 1-4 3PT, 2-2 FT, 3 REB, 1 PF, 10 AST, 2 TO, 0 BLK, 0 STL
Marcus Hall: 33 MIN, 9 PTS, 3-8 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-2 FT, 2 REB, 1 PF, 5 AST, 1 TO, 0 BLK, 0 STL
Caden Wilkins: 27 MIN, 7 PTS, 2-6 FG, 1-3 3PT, 2-2 FT, 3 REB, 3 PF, 0 AST, 1 TO, 0 BLK, 0 STL

Field Goals (FG)	27-53 (50.9%)	33-67 (49.3%)
Three-Point FG (3PT)	4-14 (28.6%)	14-28 (50.0%)
Free Throws (FT)	18-19 (94.7%)	16-21 (76.2%)
Total Rebounds (Offensive)	25 (5)	37 (15)
Assists	18	23
Steals	1	7
Blocks	3	2
Turnovers	9	4
Points Off Turnovers	2	17
Fast Break Points	2	7
Points in the Paint	42	38
Personal Fouls	16	16
Largest Lead	7	22

Up Next- @ Corteva Coliseum vs Wright State 3/9 | 7pm

Northern Kentucky secured its second straight tournament win, this time knocking off a Green Bay team that had beaten the Norse twice during the regular season. The reward is another shot at a familiar challenge. NKU will get a third crack at Wright State on Monday night, looking to flip the script against a Raiders squad that has also had their number this season.

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 March 9th! You can also watch the game on ESPN+.