By David Boyce, Northwest Athletics
BOLIVAR, Mo. – Faced with a 12-point halftime deficit on the road, Northwest Missouri State’s women’s basketball team needed to get off to a strong start in the third quarter.
It didn’t happen. The Bearcats were outscored 11-2 at the start of the second half. It was too much of a hole for Northwest to climb out. The Bearcats dropped their MIAA opener, falling to Southwest Baptist 62-38 Thursday evening at Meyer Sports Center.
The problem for the Bearcats against Baptist was an inability to score consistently. Senior guard Taylor Shull was the only Northwest player who shot the ball without fear.
Shull, though, believes in her teammates and knows they can make shots if they take them.
“It is communicating and letting them know that I have trust in them,” Shull said. “Being a senior, I can’t be the only out there doing something. We can’t win if it is 1-on-5 or 2-on-5. It is the whole team looking for its shot. They are here for a reason, to play as basketball players who have confidence in themselves.”
Shull scored 9, but that wasn’t near enough to keep pace with Baptist freshman Caylee Richardson, who finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. And when she cooled down in the second half, Dilonna Johnson, Alex Botkin and Megan Rosenbohm stepped up.
Northwest never got closer than 14 the rest of the way.
The good news for Northwest is it has plenty of conference games coming up to find its rhythm on offense. But the Bearcats will face another stern test Saturday afternoon when they play at Central Missouri.
The key, Shull said, is to stay upbeat.
“We need positivity from everyone, from the bench to the court,” Shull said. “We just have to stick together. Yes, this is only the first conference game. Yes, we don’t want to start the conference season this way, but there is a lot more ahead, a lot more to learn from.
“It is a learning process. We have to take things from this game that might not went the way we wanted to, learn from it and bounce back.”
Two factors played into why Northwest went into halftime trailing 32-20. Northwest missed too many baskets in the paint and it allowed Richardson to go 6-for-7 from the field and score 14 points in the first half.
Despite the troubles in the paint, Northwest managed to take a 6-2 lead in the first quarter on a three-pointer by sophomore Tanya Meyer and junior Jasmin Howe.
Baptist moved ahead 10-8 late in the first quarter and went into the second quarter ahead 12-10.
A three-pointer by freshman Taylor Jackson at the start of the second quarter extended Baptist’s lead to 15-10.
An 8-0 run by Baptist really put Northwest in a difficult spot. The run gave Baptist a 27-15 lead. Northwest was never able to cut into that lead the rest of the quarter.
Northwest finished the first half 7-for-25 from the field for 28 percent. Meanwhile, Baptist shot nearly 50 percent, making 14-of-31 shots.