Highland Heights, Ky. – Northern Kentucky scored four points in the final two seconds to steal a 66-64 win from the Youngstown State women's basketball team on Tuesday evening at The Bank of Kentucky Center.

After the Penguins made 1-of-4 from the free-throw line in the final 26 seconds, Kayla Thacker hit a leaning bucket around a defender from 19 feet away to tie the score at 64 with 1.7 seconds left. YSU's Karen Flagg then stepped over the line on the inbounds pass for a turnover. Melody Doss hit a runner in the lane on NKU's inbounds pass just before the buzzer.

NKU led by as many as 14 in the first half, but YSU led by six with 3:18 left.

YSU's Brandi Brown finished with 21 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, and Heidi Schlegel scored 13 of her 15 points in the first half.

Norse freshman Christine Roush led all scorers with 24 points on 9-for-12 shooting, and she made four of NKU's eight 3-pointers. Northern Kentucky was hosting its first Division-I home game and picked up its first victory at this level. The Norse improved to 26-2 at home over the last three seasons. YSU, which was riding its first four-game winning streak since the 2007-08 season, dropped to 4-1.

After YSU was able to trim the 14-point deficit down to one at halftime, Liz Hornberger made a 3-pointer at the 16:45 mark of the second half to give YSU its first lead at 39-38 since the game was three minutes old. NKU hit a 3-pointer on its next possession, and the Norse made another trey immediately after YSU took the lead on a Monica Touvelle 3-pointer. Another Norse 3-pointer gave them a 55-54 lead with 7:13 remaining.

The Penguins scored the next nine points in just under four minutes and led 63-55 after a driving lay-up by Flagg. That was their final field goal of the contest.

Roush made a bucket to stop NKU's drought, and Tiara Hopper split a pair of free throws to make the score 63-58 with 2:21 left. The score remained that way until Ellen Holton made a bucket with 33.1 seconds remaining to cut the margin to 63-60. Touvelle missed two free throws with 25.5 seconds left, and Roush hit a jumper with 18 seconds on the clock to trim the deficit to one. Brown then split her two free throws, and Thacker's prayer and Doss's game-winner followed.

Shar'Rae Davis added 11 points and five assists before fouling out with 11:02 left in the second half. Hopper chipped in with 11 points for NKU.

After Brown scored on YSU's first possession of the game, neither team scored for more than two-and-a-half minutes as the Penguins led 2-0 with just over 17 minutes left. That's when the Norse caught fire and scored 22 points in just over five minutes and led 22-8 with 11:56 remaining. Rianna Gayheart's 3-pointer capped the run for the NKU, which made eight of its first 10 attempts overall and its first four from 3-point range.

Brown made a 3-pointer just 10 seconds later, but NKU kept hitting shots and still led 29-16 at the 6:25 mark when Roush hit her third 3-pointer of the half. From that point, YSU outscored the Norse 15-3 the rest of the half and trailed by just one at halftime.

Schlegel, who had 13 points in the opening period, started YSU's run with a three-point play. NKU answered with a bucket on the next possession, but YSU scored the next 11 points to tie the score at 31-31 with 1:29 left before halftime. Schlegel had five points during the run, and Brown capped the rally with a bucket following two offensive rebounds. Thacker added a free throw with 1:18 left to give NKU its 32-31 edge at the break.

Youngstown State will conclude its November schedule at home on Friday against Stony Brook. Tip-off against the Seawolves is set for 7:05 p.m.