Northwest Missouri State head men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum announced the additions of Grant Graham and Tyler Dougherty to the 2015-16 roster. Graham, from Eldridge, Iowa, was a standout guard at North Scott High School while Dougherty is a 6-6 forward from Papillion-LaVista High School in LaVista, Neb.
“Both of these kids really wanted to be at Northwest,” said McCollum. “They fit our culture and we think it’s extremely important having kids that want to be in our program. We are very excited about having these two young men join our basketball family.”
Graham was a second team All-Mississippi Athletic Conference performer as a junior, earning third team accolades as a freshman and honorable mention honors as a sophomore. In three seasons, Graham has compiled 622 points, 150 assists, 221 rebounds, 68 steals and eight blocked shots. He has a single game high of 26 points. North Scott has advanced to the sub-state finals all three seasons. Graham maintaines a 3.87 GPA, is a member of the National Honor Society and has earned All-MAC academic team honors all three seasons.
“Grant is a very tough and heady guard,” McCollum said. “We were impressed with his ability to always make the right play on offense. He is a very good defender, one of the best we saw in high school last year. Grant’s North Scott team is 40-6 the last two seasons and that’s one of the first things we look at when recruiting a kid. Grant will do his job in the classroom and will be a great kid in the community.”
Dougherty has helped lead the Papillion-LaVista Monarchs to a pair of Nebraska Final Four appearances. As a junior, he averaged 14 points and seven rebounds. Last season, he scored a career-best 25 points to go along with 10 rebounds against Omaha Westside. Dougherty is an all-state scholar athlete, earning all-state honorable mention honors and all-area first team accolades. He played club basketball for Omaha Sports Academy and helped lead the team to the Mullens High Profile Tournament titel in 2014 in St. Louis. A three sport standout in football and soccer in addition to basketball, Dougherty is also an honor roll student and is a member of the National Honor Society. He is the younger brother of current Bearcat redshirt freshman Brett Dougherty.
“Tyler is a strong and tough kid,” said McCollum. “He is very good at attacking the basket and finishing around the rim. He has been a part of some very successful teams at Papillion LaVista and with his AAU team the Omaha Crusaders. Tyler is a fantastic kid and comes from a great family that we already know very well through his brother Brett.”
— Northwest Sports Information —