By David Boyce, Northwest Athletics
EMPORIA, Kan. – A lack of a killer instinct cost Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball Wednesday evening against Emporia State at White Auditorium.
The Bearcats were in the process of taking control of the game 8 minutes into the second half. They built an eight-point lead and appeared to have the sub .500 Hornets on the ropes.
All of sudden, shots stopped falling for Northwest. Emporia State scored the next 11 points for a three-point lead and never allowed the Bearcats to go ahead again. The result was a 70-63 loss, which dropped Northwest to 10-5 overall and 7-3 in the MIAA. Emporia State improved to 7-9 and 4-6.
Northwest will have to quickly regroup. The Bearcats return to the road for their next game, facing Washburn at Lee Arena in Topeka.
“We have to get stops,” Northwest coach Ben McCollum said. “We didn’t get stops down the stretch.”
In previous games when Northwest allowed second half leads to disappear, the Bearcats battled back and won in the closing minutes. It didn’t happen this time. Through most of the final 12 minutes, Northwest stayed within two points. The Bearcats trailed 61-59 with about a 2 minutes.
A long three-pointer by junior Jay Temaat gave Emporia State a five-point lead and knocked the Bearcats off balanced. The Bearcats never regained traction to make one final run.
“We gave up a huge three,” McCollum said. “The guy was stopped. He was at the free throw line and then for some reason, we left their best shooter out there. It kind of broke our backs.
“But it didn’t come down to one play. It came down to us not getting it done down the stretch.”
As it turned out, Northwest was outscored 30-15 the final 12:04 after taking a 48-40 lead. A big part of the problem for the Bearcats was their cold shooting in the second half. They went nine for 30 from the field for 30 percent.
The usual balanced scoring didn’t happen Wednesday night for Northwest. Justin Pitts finished with 26 points, but needed to take 23 shots. The only other player in double figures was Chris-Ebou Ndow, who finished with 10.
“I think we need to make sure we don’t hide on offense,” McCollum said. “We rely heavily on Justin and as soon as he gets all that attention, the other guys need to stop hiding and sit in the corner. It is what we are suppose to do somewhat, but they need to be ready to go and drive and not hide.
“Maybe I haven’t done a good enough job of getting them in situations where they can drive. That’s what we need to improve on.”
Northwest won the first half battle of runs and went into halftime ahead 39-34.
The Bearcats started strong, taking a 13-6 lead. Pitts showed early that he was in for a hot first half. His first basket was a three-pointer that gave Northwest a 3-2 lead. He made another trey that helped Northwest build an early seven-point lead.
Emporia State, behind the play of Terrence Moore, scored the next nine points for a 15-13 lead. The Hornets increased their lead to 21-16 when Northwest scored the next six points for a one-point lead.
Over the next couple of minutes, Emporia State held a slim lead. The Bearcats’ last spurt came when they trailed 28-24. They scored 15 of the next 21 points for the five-point halftime lead.
Once again, it was Pitts who sparked Northwest. On this occasion, Pitts did his damage driving to the basket. He made seven of 11 field goals in the first half for 18 points.
Junior Zach Schneider helped opening some lanes for Pitts by drilling three, three-pointers in the first half.
Both teams shot the ball well from the field in the first 20 minutes. Northwest hit 55 percent of its shots and the Hornets made 54 percent of their shots.
— Northwest Athletics —