N. Kentucky controls Cleveland St. with 11 3's in 78-61 win

Feb 3, 2018, 10:23 pm

CLEVELAND -- Lavone Holland II scored 21 points and Drew McDonald scored 19 and Northern Kentucky beat Cleveland State convincingly 78-61 on Saturday.

Northern Kentucky (17-7, 10-2 Horizon League) raced to a 10-3 lead, the Roadrunners closed to a point with Kenny Carpenter's back-to-back layup and jump shot, but Mason Faulkner responded with a layup and Tyler Sharpe made consecutive 3-pointers and the Norse's lead went to 18-9. McDonald made back-to-back jumpers and Faulkner added another 3 and the lead was 14. Faulkner made all five of his 3s and scored all 14 of his points before intermission.

The Norse led 40-26 at the break before Cleveland State (6-19, 3-9) used an 8-4 spurt to close to 53-42 before McDonald's layup and jumper extended Northern Kentucky's lead to double digits for good. Tyler Sharpe added 12 points and the Norse shot 30 of 55 (54.5) from the field and 11 of 19 (58) from 3.

Carpenter and Tyree Appleby each scored 13 and Kasheem Thomas, 11 for the Vikings.