The Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team captured a tough-fought 70-57 victory over Emporia State on Friday evening at Municipal Auditorium in thequarterfinal round of the MIAA Tournament. Northwest will now advance to face the winner of Missouri Southern and Nebraska-Kearney at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday evening.

The Bearcats (22-7) were paced by 21 points from senior DeShaun Cooper, 14 coming after halftime. He also had a team-high nine rebounds and a steal. Classmate Dillon Starzl added 17 points with six rebounds and two blocked shots. Grant Cozad went 7-for-8 from the charity stripe and finished with 11 points. Emporia State got 26 points from Terrence Moore and 19 from Kaleb Wright as the Hornets finished the season at 18-13.

Northwest rebounded from a 40 percent shooting first half with an efficient12-for-22 (54.5 percent) effort in the second half to finish at 47.6 percent while holding ESU to 21-for-64 shooting (32.8 percent). Northwest only forced nine turnovers but drew 26 personal fouls and shot 38 free throws on the evening, double the Hornets’ total.

The Hornets led by as many as eight in the first half as Moore and Wright each reached double figures in the opening 20 minutes. But grabbed the lead with2:02 left in the first half on a Cooper three pointer and never trailed therest of the way. The score was tied with 1:27 in the first half but Northwest would go on  to score the last four points of the half to lead 29-25 at the break.

Northwest will play the winner of Nebraska-Kearney and Missouri Southern in the MIAA semifinals on Saturday at 8:15 p.m. at Municipal Auditorium.

— Northwest Sports Information —