And it seemed to have a much-needed win over rival Northern Kentucky within reach — at least for a while.
But victories don’t usually come to teams that play well only intermittently, and that turned out to be the case again at the Nutter Center on Friday.
Up by nine points with nine minutes left, by eight with seven minutes to go and by four with four minutes remaining, the Raiders couldn’t close it out and dropped an 80-76 decision before 4,732 fans.
“I just thought, in the first half, we were very unsure, very on-our-heels, very lacking in confidence collectively,” said coach Clint Sargent, whose team has lost three games in a row for the second time this season and four of their last five.
“Equally disturbing was our start to the second half (four possessions, four turnovers). Some of the patterns to our team emotionally and just the personality of our team — (I’m) trying everything to engage them with our communication, helping these guys to take over. I’m obviously not doing a good enough job to get that across.”
The Raiders shot a scorching 55% from the field and had a 38-28 rebounding edge.
Junior center Brandon Noel scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half to go with 11 rebounds for his ninth double-double this season, matching his total from last year.
But when the game was on the line, he was swarmed by the Norse, and the others couldn’t come through.
A 3-pointer from Dan Gherezgher with 1:48 to go gave NKU a 77-76 lead.
Jack Doumbia missed wildly on a drive for the Raiders, and then NKU had two good looks on its next possession but missed both.
The Raiders’ Alex Huibregtse (0 of 9 from the field) missed a 3 but got his own rebound after a scramble for the ball.
With 26.7 seconds left — and 12 on the shot clock — Sargent called timeout.
Solomon Callaghan, who had 16 points, missed badly from 12 feet, and the ball went out of bounds to the Norse with 17.1 seconds left.
Josh Dilling was fouled at 15.4 seconds and made one of two foul shots.
Doumbia’s drive that would have tied the game was blocked by Keeyon Itejere.
Dilling was back at the line with five seconds left with the double bonus and made both.
Turn out the lights.
“There were a lot of things throughout the game we did good, and a lot of things we did bad. Toward the end, we couldn’t string the good together. That’s why we let this one get away,” Noel said.
“I thought we had pretty good fight, but it wasn’t good enough to get a win.”
The Raiders, who are 13-16 overall and eighth in the Horizon League at 7-11, went into the game with seven losses in one-possession or overtime games, which is second in the nation behind only UT Martin’s eight.
“I feel like the main issue is our defense,” said forward Michael Imariagbe, who had 13 points (all in the first half) while making his 14th start in 28 games.
“When we’re not connected on defense, teams seem to have their runs. If we were connected, I feel like we’d be winning these games with ease.”
NKU, which is 13-15 and 8-9, capitalized big time on one trip down the floor, scoring five points in three seconds.
Itejere had a bucket while being fouled at 9:55 of the first half. He missed the free throw, but Randall Pettus II hustled for the rebound and zipped a pass to Gherezgher for a 3 at 9:52.
“I was disappointed in our first half and our overall look to us,” Sargent said. “Mike and Solo did a good job of playing with a little pop to them. … But we have a number of guys struggling right now.”
THURSDAY’S GAME
Cleveland State at Wright State, 9 p.m., ESPN2, 101.5, 1410
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