INDIANAPOLIS - To reach Friday night's Great Lakes Regional semifinal game against Northern Kentucky University, Quincy University had to survive a thee-hour, triple-overtime marathon the night before against Southern Indiana.
There would be no repeat performance for Quincy against NKU. This game ended almost as soon as it started.
Powered by a 17-0 run before the game had hit the 11-minute mark of the first half, NKU cruised to an 84-52 victory in its first NCAA Division II Tournament game.
The Norse play fifth-seeded Oakland, Mich.) at 7:30 tonight in the Regional finals. Oakland upset top-seed and host Indianapolis 75-72. It was first time Indianapolis lost at home all year.
''Obviously we were expecting it to be Indy,'' NKU assistant coach Dave Bezold said. ''Oakland is sort of like Indy. They have a great point guard and a great inside player. So our game plan will be the same.''
Friday night, Quincy was likely fatigued from its 125-118 epic the night before, but the Norse played well enough to beat the Hawks on any night.
''If I admitted to us being fatigued, it would take away from the job Northern Kentucky did,'' Quincy coach Steve Hawkins said. ''I don't think on our best night we could have beaten them the way they played tonight.'
Point guard Shannon Minor, coming off a 33-point outburst in NKU's last game against Southern Indiana, led the Norse with 21 points, including five three-pointers. Guard Andy Listerman came off the bench to add 15.
''As a point guard, I've always worked on being able to both shoot and penetrate,'' Minor said. ''It's always good to have a point guard that can shoot and an off-guard that can shoot like (Paul) Cluxton. It makes it awfully tough to guard us.''
NKU was at the peak of its game both on the interior and the perimeter. If Minor and Cluxton weren't banging down three-pointers, center Cliff Clinton and LaRon Moore were getting put-backs inside despite Quincy's size advantage up front with 6-foot-10 John Peck.
''We know we've had some problems defensively on the interior,'' NKU coach Ken Shields said. ''We really came out to play.''
NKU now sits one win away from a return trip to the Elite Eight, where last year it advanced to the national championship.
''Our problem is we've been looking forward to the postseason all year,'' said Cluxton, who extended his consecutive free-throw to 85 by going 4-for-4. ''Some of those regular season games didn't seem as important as playing for the national championship.''
NKU was certainly in postseason form against Quincy, which it had only beaten 76-73 during the season.
NKU extended its lead in the first half to 40-20 on another Cluxton three from the wing at 2:48.
Quincy's Matt Steffe and Frank MacIntosh would hit back-to-back three-pointers to slice the lead to 14, but the Norse got the margin back up to 45-26 by halftime.
Previous tourney stories
NKU BATTLING UPHILL AGAIN March 6, 1997
NKU FORCED TO GO ON THE ROAD March 3, 1997
