Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team stayed in the locker room at halftime until about 30 seconds remained.
Coach Ben McCollum had plenty to say to his first-place Bearcats, who faced a 14-point deficit at Missouri Southern.
The Bearcats came out with renewed energy and quickly closed to seven points before the first media timeout. In fact, Southern was forced to call a timeout to stem the momentum the Bearcats were riding.
Ultimately, Wednesday evening belonged to Southern. Northwest saw its 10-game winning streak end with an 82-68 loss at Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
“They came out ready to play,” said Northwest senior DeShaun Cooper, who finished with 22 points. “We came out lackadaisical and weren’t ready at all. They just outplayed us, out toughed us. They were the better team today as you can tell by the score.”
However, Northwest, 18-6 overall, remains in first place in the MIAA with an impressive 13-2 record. It was the Bearcats first road loss in conference play.
Northwest has a week to prepare for its next game, a home contest against Lindenwood on Feb. 19.
“We have to get each other tougher and come at each other tomorrow and man-up,” Cooper said.
The Bearcats showed plenty of fight early in the second half after Southern opened with a three-pointer that increased its lead to 43-26.
Northwest went on a 10-0 run, getting six points from center Dillon Starzl. The Bearcats were back in the game, trailing 43-36.
“We needed to look inside ourselves and toughen up, which we did at the start of the second half,” said Starzl, who finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. “I thought we were making a good push and then it went down again.
“And then we stopped getting stops. We stopped getting offensive rebounds. We stopped boxing out on the defensive end. They got a lot of offensive rebounds and put backs. That’s why we lost the game.”
Southern, which improved to 16-5 and 10-4, showed the poise of a team fighting for one of the top four seeds in the conference tournament.
A long three-pointer by Austin Wright pushed the Lions lead to 46-36. Northwest answered with a three-pointer from freshman Zach Schneider.
The Bearcats just couldn’t generate enough offense to keep pace with Southern. Back-to-back three-point plays from Lane Barlow and Marquis Addison gave Southern a 52-39 lead.
Northwest faced a double-digit deficit the rest of the way. The dagger came with 7:05 left when Addison hit a three-pointer for a 61-45 lead for the Lions. Twenty seconds later, Addison added a field goal, making it 63-45.
Northwest played one of those first halves when very little went right as the 40-26 halftime deficit proved.
“At the beginning of the game, we were not focused,” Starzl said. “I don’t know what it was. I don’t know if we were scared of Southern because we knew they were going to come out ready for us because we beat them at home.”
The shooting stats bear out the one-sided nature of the first half. The Bearcats made only nine of 29 from the field for 31 percent compared to 53 percent for Southern.
The only lead Northwest held in the game was 2-0. Southern, though, quickly built a 14-5 lead and maintained control throughout the first half.
Only Cooper found some success for Northwest in the first half. He was 3-for-5 from the field and scored seven points in the first half. But Cooper picked up his third foul with 6 seconds left in the first half, putting him in a bind for the second half.
Nobody else for the Bearcats made more than one field goal.
— Northwest Sports Information —