Louisville rallies past Northern Ky.

LOUISVILLE, KY. » Deng Adel had 20 points, including 16 during Louisville’s hot-shooting second half that rallied the Cardinals past Northern Kentucky 66-58 Tuesday night in a first-round NIT game.

The No. 2 seed Cardinals (21-13) needed a half to shake the mental funk of missing the NCAA Tournament before making 14 of 23 in the final two quarters (61 percent) to win the meeting between Bluegrass State schools. Louisville led 45-44 after three quarters thanks to a monster slam by Darius Perry and scored the first nine points of the fourth to gain some breathing room against the No. 7 seed Norse (22-10). BAYLOR 80, WAGNER 59 » Manu Lecomte had no problems with the NIT’s experimental 3-point line, hitting 5 of 8 from distance and scoring 24 points to help Baylor (19-14) beat Wagner (23-10). MIDDLE TENNESSEE 91, VERMONT 64 » Giddy Potts made six 3-pointers and scored 25 points, Nick King had 16 points and 12 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the season and Middle Tennessee (25-7) used an 18-0 third-quarter run to roll past Vermont (27-8). WESTERN KENTUCKY 79, BOSTON COLLEGE 62» Justin Johnson had his fifth-straight double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds to lead Western Kentucky (25-10) to a win over Boston College (19-16).