Northern Kentucky Sports Chronicle

(This column was originally published on Dec. 23, 2019) Christmas Eve is always my favorite day of the year. For many reasons. For several decades. From trying to figure out how Santa Claus and his reindeer would land on the rooftop, to driving around the area looking at the various holiday displays. Sneaking down the steps to see my parents putting gifts underneath the tree. Spending time with family and friends. Christmas Eve is a special time, then and now. My all-time favorite college basketball memory also occurred on a Christmas Eve. Of course, it depends on if you go by the Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone or Eastern Time, because that moment occurred around 2 a.m. (EST) on Dec. 24, 1982. That’s the night Chaminade stunned the college basketball world by defeating top-ranked Virginia in Honolulu. Technically, the game tipped off on Dec. 23, 1982, in Hawaii. But by the time Chaminade — then an NAIA program — had pulled off the gargantuan upset of previously unbeaten Virginia and All-Ame...

(This article was originally published on March 27, 2000) By Sean Keeler Post staff reporter PINE BLUFF, Ark. — The Northern Kentucky University women's basketball team, coming off a 2000 NCAA Division II national championship Saturday, has more than enough pieces coming back this fall to make a repeat run. NKU returns all five starters from this season's national champion. The roster is composed of four juniors, two sophomores and four freshmen. While the program has maintained a standard of excellence — a 62-5 record over the last two seasons, 32 wins this year — the Norse know they've become an extra-special marquee game for their opponents next season. “We already know we have a big target on our backs for next season,” said junior guard Michele Tuchfarber, who had nine points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals in a 71-62 overtime win over North Dakota State. It’s a role that was more familiar to the favored Bison, whose program had won five national titles. I...

(This story was originally published on Nov. 12, 2011) HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. — For their 40th birthday on Saturday, the Norse of Northern Kentucky University blew out the candles. Then, they blew away UC-Clermont. NKU opened the game with a 38-8 run and cruised to a 106-58 victory over visiting UC-Clermont. Given it was the 40th anniversary of the program’s first-ever game, the Norse appropriately built a 40-point halftime lead (64-24) by shooting 61.1 percent from the field. “We moved the ball really well in the first half and knocked down open shots, and that allowed us to build a huge lead,” NKU head coach Dave Bezold said. “We were able to get everyone in the game, and it was a nice way to begin the regular season.” Jon Van Hoose led NKU (1-0) with 17 points, going 5-for-8 from 3-point range. DeAndre Nealy added 16 points and nine rebounds in his Norse debut, while Stretch Watson finished with 14 points and nine boards. Ethan Faulkner scored 13 points, dished out six assists and co...

___________________ (This story was originally published on Feb. 22, 1990) HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. — Hitting a last-second shot to beat an undefeated opponent is a basketball player's dream. Northern Kentucky University’s Valerie Gaerke lived out that dream on Thursday night in Regents Hall. “I knew time was running down, and it was either going into overtime or we would get the last shot and win the game,” Gaerke said of her short jumper with one second remaining that gave the Lady Norse a heart-stopping 82-80 win over previously unbeaten St. Joseph’s. “I didn't want to make another pass, so I drove in, put it up and luckily, it went in.” In doing so, the 5-foot-10 sophomore from Ft. Recovery, Ohio, ended the Lady Pumas’ 24-game winning-streak and boosted Northern's record to 17-7, 10-5 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. St. Joseph’s dropped to 24-1, 14-1 in the GLVC. Gaerke finished the game with only five points, but the sophomore wasn't 100 percent, either. “We wer...

NKU’s Paul Cluxton, LaRon Moore, Andre McClendon and Ken Shields after defeating Virginia Union. ---------------- (This story was originally published in The Kentucky Post on March 22, 1996) By Tom Gamble Kentucky Post sports editor LOUISVILLE — After spending more than three decades on the sideline and winning almost 600 career games, Northern Kentucky University basketball coach Ken Shields can sense when a team has what it takes to win. And Shields has that feeling. One night after sophomore guard Andy Listerman scored a career-high 19 points, including the game-winning layup with 2.8 seconds left to give NKU a 56-55 win over Cal State Bakersfield, the Norse found another way to win. Thursday, it was junior forward LaRon Moore who came up with the big shot — a turnaround jumper with just 3.2 seconds remaining (pictured on right) — that enabled NKU to beat Virginia Union, 68-66, in an NCAA Division II semifinal game before a crowd of 2,596 at the Commonwealth Convention Center. As a ...

L ooking back at it, the night of Nov. 8, 2008, emphatically revealed the impressive growth of Northern Kentucky University and the impact of intercollegiate athletics. The roads in Highland Heights were jammed with vehicles headed to The Bank of Kentucky Center. Unless you were on the pass list, parking on campus was a nightmare after 5 p.m. Why? Folks from all over the region were gathering to see NKU play host to the University of Louisville in the first-ever college basketball event in the new facility. Yes, the same basketball program that began its existence without a home floor in 1971 was welcoming legendary head coach Rick Pitino and the Louisville Cardinals to open NKU’s new 9,400-seat arena. Who could’ve imagined this in 1971, when then-Northern Kentucky State College met Calvary College inside Newport High School’s small gym in the Norsemen’s debut as a basketball program? But it really happened. A raucous crowd of 8,408 — most of them wearing the black and gold of NKU — s...