Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Jalen Tate switched uniforms in the first half, trading No. 11 for No. 1. Then he lived up to it.
The Northern Kentucky third-year sophomore guard, whose first jersey was soiled with some blood, scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half and the Norse erupted for 41 after halftime on their way to a 68-64 Horizon League win on Friday before a crowd of 5,848 at BB&T Arena on the NKU campus.
The 6-foot-6 Tate repeatedly beat Raider defenders to the rim and then could be seen letting them know it on his way back up court. NKU (14-4, 4-1), which moved into a tie for first place with Detroit Mercy, shot an impressive 68.2 percent from the field in the second half (15-for-22) after managing just 28.6 percent (8-for-28) in the first half.
“They just beat us off the bounce,” third-year Wright State coach Scott Nagy said. “We played good defense in the first half. In the second half, we let them make way too many shots. It was more breakdowns on our part than anything else.”
Sophomore center Loudon Love scored 16 points, senior guard Mark Hughes added 14 and junior guard Cole Gentry finished with 12 for Wright State (8-10, 2-3), which sank a season-low three 3-pointers in 15 tries. Love overcame some physical defense to go 8-for-16 from the field, a bit down from the 51.6 percentage he brought into the game.
“It was a little more pronounced tonight,” the 6-foot-9 Love said of the physicality. “I’ve seen it before. I work on it in practice. That’s an OK percentage, but it’s not great for what I was shooting. That’s a lot of misses.”
