By David Boyce
MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State’s women’s basketball team gave up the first 10 points to Pittsburg State and that was too many against the sixth-ranked team in the country.
The Bearcats spent the rest of the game trying to erase the early, 10-point deficit and never quite made it, falling 80-54 Saturday afternoon at Bearcat Arena.
“That wasn’t the team I coached last Thursday and it wasn’t the team I coached in practice yesterday. But it was the team at shoot around this morning,” Northwest coach Buck Scheel said. “We were very low energy and not dialed in, and that is unacceptable.
“After we played a tough game and really competed on Thursday night, we come in Saturday against a team like Pitt State and had nothing to lose, but you can’t just walk out on the floor.”
Once again, there were several bright spots for Northwest in its comeback attempt in the first half. A three-pointer by Macy Williams midway through the first quarter closed the gap to 10-6.
Later in the first quarter, Arbrie Benson made several drives for layups. Her last one in the first quarter made it 15-10 and prompted Pitt State coach Lane Lord to call timeout.
In the second quarter, Carlie Wilhelmi got hot, making three field goals in a 2-minute span. Her third one sliced a double-digit deficit back to single digits at 27-18.
Unfortunately, Northwest gave up the last six points in the second quarter and went into halftime trailing 35-20.
Even though Pitt State extended its lead in the second half, Northwest kept battling. Williams made aggressive drives to the basket and scored 18 points in the second half. She finished with 23.
“Tonight, I thought Macy Williams was the only one out there for the majority of the game that didn’t want to lose,” Scheel said. “You could just tell by how aggressive she was being. “She was out there ready to fight.”
Junior Caitlin Sudduth had her best half in a Bearcat uniform, scoring six points.
Pitt State, though, was too strong in the paint. Every time Northwest generated some momentum, the Gorillas came down and scored a layup.
“You got to be able to make those adjustments, and handle adversity,” Scheel said. “We have some kids who handle adversity well, and we have some kids who don’t handle adversity well.”
— Northwest Athletics —