Olivia Nash scored 24 points and recorded 14 rebounds for her 29th career double-double and fifth of the season to surpass Sarah Judd for the most double-doubles in program history in the Division I era as Oakland battled a tough loss to Northern Kentucky, 75-71, on Thursday night.

Oakland leads the all-time series against the Horizon League’s newest member NKU 5-1, as the Golden Grizzlies took a 74-66 victory in the last game between the schools in 1997.

Elena Popkey added 14 points with seven assists, which moves her into sole possession of third place all-time for career assists in program history with 417.

“I don’t think about it when I play, but it’s one of the best things about the game and it’s what I love to do,” Popkey said.

The loss puts Oakland at a 10-6 record overall and 2-3 in Horizon League play.

Nash mentioned that she was not aware that she set a new record for double-doubles when it happened, which shows she was more focused on a win than a title at the end of the day.

“We came to a timeout and Elena said congrats,” she said.

Oakland’s head coach, Jeff Tungate, is extremely happy and proud of Nash. He said that she is a much more well-rounded player now than she was a year ago and the rest of her senior year will be a great one.

“I think we all just came together, I think in the first half we were all playing kind of separately and then we came out together,” Popkey said. “When we come out together we come out stronger.”

Oakland started the second half on a 12-0 run, which put the team at a 40-40 tie with NKU, but the Norse outscored the Golden Grizzlies 19-9 to end the third quarter.

“We really wanted to establish our inside game, so that opened up some three-point shots for us and we made those shots,” Tungate said.

“The first half we didn’t make those shots and the second half we did, but I thought we did a much better job executing our offense in the second half.”

Trailing 59-49, Taylor Jones, who ranks seventh in the conference for steals, along with Taylor Gleason, each put up 11 points to help earn the team 11 extra points at the start of the fourth quarter before falling just four points short at the end.

Oakland welcomes Wright State to the Blacktop at the O’rena on Saturday, Jan. 16 at 11 a.m.

“[Nash and Popkey] have done a great job for us and a great job for the program and I’m really happy for both of them,” Tungate said.