By David Boyce, Northwest Athletics
MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northeastern State entered Bearcat Arena Monday evening with two wins and a spot at the bottom of the MIAA. None of that mattered. The RiverHawks played a man’s game on the boards.
The relentless effort by Northeastern forced Northwest Missouri State to make some clutch baskets by Justin Pitts and a few critical free throws by Pitts, D’Vante Mosby and Anthony Woods in the closing minutes.
And those plays only mattered because of the three-point shooting by Conner Crooker and Zach Schneider kept the Bearcats in striking distance. Crooker and Schneider each made four three-pointers.
Northwest needed every ounce of energy from every player that stepped on the court in the second half to pull out a 78-74 win against the RiverHawks.
“Personally, I thought it was fun, but we have to buckle down, play more defense and buy into what coach Mac (head coach Ben McCollum) says,” said Pitts of the back and forth nature of the final 2 minutes. “We have to start getting stops and boxing out because we can’t keep going into games like that.”
The Bearcats, 9-4 overall and 6-2 in the MIAA, now have five days to work on a few things before playing at rival Missouri Western at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Against the RiverHawks, Northwest could never put the game away against a team that dropped to 2-9 and 1-6. There were 12 lead changes in the second half. Northwest seemingly took control with 3:25 left when Mosby hit two free throws to give the Bearcats a 68-63 lead.
“It is nice to know we have a lot of options and Pitts going off the screen is just go-to, and he can make plays,” said Crooker, who finished with 16 points. “And Zach can stretch it out and shoot threes. We are pretty confident that we can score at the end of the game.”
The Bearcats definitely needed that confidence late in the game because of the way the RiverHawks played down the stretch.
Northeastern State scored nine of the next 11 points and grabbed a 72-70 lead with about 1:30 left. Northwest tied the game at 72-72 on a driving layup by Pitts.
The RiverHawks didn’t back down and scored the next basket. The Bearcats came right back. A basket plus the foul shot by Woods gave Northwest 75-74 lead with 41 seconds left. Northwest increased the lead by one more point when Mosby made one of two free throws with 13.8 seconds left. With 2 seconds left, Pitts sealed the game with two more free throws. Pitts finished with 21 points.
Northwest had a strange first half and when halftime arrived, the Bearcats were locked in a 38-38 tie.
The Bearcats got off to a slow start in the first half and trailed 16-12 midway through the first half. Over the next 5 minutes, Northwest played like one of the top teams in the MIAA, scoring the next 14 points for a 26-16 lead.
It appeared the Bearcats had taken control of the game. For the rest of the first half, the RiverHawks played like a team battling for first. They fought for rebounds, dove for loose balls and hustled their way back into the game.
“We just lost focus,” Pitts said. “We kind of went away from the things that we did to get those stops. We have to buckle down, play D and box out.”
A three-point play by senior Dakota Caudill late in the first half gave Northeastern a 36-35 lead. Caudill finished with a game-high 24 points. Northwest went right back in front on a three-pointer by Crooker.
The RiverHawks dominated the boards, pulling down 25 rebounds compared to just 12 from Northwest. In fact, the 12 offensive rebounds for Northeastern matched the rebound total for Northwest.
“That was definitely a big issue,” Crooker said. “I think once we got our lead we got kind of complacent and thought it was going to come to us, but they are not going to stop competing. They out-hustled us and made us look kind of soft.”
— Northwest Athletics —