The Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team led wire-to-wire in an 83-60 win against Peru State on Tuesday night in Bearcat Arena. Northwest moves to 4-2 on the season with the win. The game was played as an exhibition for Peru State.

Northwest lead by as many as 30 points late in the second half, shooting 47.2 percent from the field for the game. The Bearcats made 27-of-38 free throws(71.1%) and forced 26 Bobcat turnovers with 11 steals and six blocked shots.

Dillon Starzl had a game-high 15 points on 5-for-11 shooting as 11 different Bearcats recorded points on the evening. Starzl also had a team-best eight rebounds. Conner Crooker had 12 points and Bryston Williams added 11 points. Kyle Schlake had a career-best four blocked shots. Williams had a game-high three steals.

Late in the first half, Peru State closed the margin to within 11 with 4:45left on a pair of free throws, 31-20. But a trio of timely threes from Jordan Ashton and Zach Schneider pushed the lead out to 20, 47-27, as Northwest closed the half on a 16-7 run.

Peru State would stage an early second half push, going on a 10-0 run to pull within 14 at 56-40, with 11:08 to go in the game. But Northwest responded with a 19-5 run to build the lead to 30 with 5:42 left, 75-45. The lead would never dip back under 21 points.

The Bearcats will head to Springfield, Mo., for the Comfort Inn/Drury Thanksgiving Classic, beginning on Friday afternoon. Northwest will play host Drury on Friday at 3:30 p.m. followed by a neutral site game against Truman State on Saturday at 1 p.m.

— Northwest Sports Information —