Dan Gherezgher scored 22 points and buried the late dagger for Northern Kentucky against UWM.
When Milwaukee met Northern Kentucky last month, it was Norse big man Kael Robinson who sent the Panthers to their doom with nine three-pointers.
This time around, with Robinson unavailable, it was local product Dan Gherezgher who crushed the Panthers with his jumper.
Gherezgher, the Brookfield East graduate who was 2 for 16 shooting in the Norse’s win on Jan. 9, drained five triples over the course of Northern Kentucky’s 67-62 victory Feb. 7 but it was his pull-up jumper with 15.2 seconds left that served as the big blow.
Needing a three to tie after Gherezgher’s shot, Josh Dixon turned the ball over with 2.7 seconds left to send the Panthers to yet another loss, this one dropping them to 5-10 in Horizon League play.
Sitting in 10th place in the conference, Milwaukee is currently staring down a trip to the play-in game of the Horizon tournament in March.
Coming in, the Norse found themselves also in dire need of a win, entering on a five-game losing streak after a 6-3 start to Horizon play.
Milwaukee went punch for punch with NKU for the majority of the first half and led, 26-20, with 5:08 to play when Chandler Jackson, who had a team-high 11 points, hit a three. But a Gherezgher three on the next possession sparked a 16-3 run over the next four minutes.
The Panthers seemed that they might be done for when a Gherezgeher layup preceded a a five-point possession from Donovan Oday thanks to a technical foul on Aaron Franklin. That turned a two-point game into a nine-point deficit in the matter of 20 seconds.
But the Panthers, as they’ve often done while undermanned, clawed back with a 12-0 run in which they held the Norse scoreless for nearly six minutes.
Dixon kept hope alive late with a pair of clutch shots down the stretch, sinking a pull-up jumper and a corner trey to draw within 63-62 with 50 seconds to go.
But it was Gherezgher, who finished with a game-high 22 points and hit five threes, who had the final laugh, dropping in a jumper with 15.2 seconds left. When a flummoxed Dixon couldn’t find an open shot amidst a Norse double team and lost the ball, all that was left for the Panthers was yet another deflating loss.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Dan Gherezgher helps Northern Kentucky beat UW-Milwaukee basketball
Category: General Sports
