Eshaunte Jones had another big scoring day while the Norse won back to back games for the second time this season as the won 64-53 over Kennesaw State on Homecoming.
Jones followed a career-best 26 point performance on Thursday with a 25 point showing on Saturday to improve the Norse to 6-11 and 4-5 in the Atlantic Sun. Tyler White came off the bench to score 13 and Chad Jackson dunked his way to 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
"That was some dunk by Chad," Norse head coach Dave Bezold exclaimed. "You need to send that to ESPN."
Bezold also praised the work of his seniors especially Ernest "Stretch" Watson who doesn't score a lot of points, but shows up in the box score in other areas. Watson was a catalyst on the defensive side of the ball with nine of his 12 rebounds coming on the defensive side and had three steals and three blocks.
Aaron Anderson was the driving force for the Owls (2-19, 1-8) as he finished with 14 points, ten rebounds and had three blocks.
The Owls jumped out to a 15-11, but the trio of Jones, Jackson and White scored 10 straight points. The three combined to score the first 21 points for the Norse before Watson scored on a tip-in with 6:42 left in the first half.
Anderson scored the final bucket for the Owls in the first half, but that came at the 5:43 mark allowing the Norse to finish on a 8-0 run including a tip-in by Jones in the final second for a 31-23 halftime lead.
In the second half the Owls would get as close as three points, but the Norse seemed to have an answer to keep them out at bay. Jackson dunked the Norse's lead back up to five and then White scored NKU's next five points. The Norse put the finishing touches on their victory by as Jones and Ethan Faulkner converted all eight free throws attempted.
NKU will now be away from the Bank of Kentucky Center until Feb. 14. They will start their road trip with a Jan. 31 showdown in Johnson City, Tenn., against East Tennessee State. In their last meeting the Bucs (6-15, 4-4) came to NKU and knocked off the Norse 49-44.
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