By David Boyce

BOLIVAR, Mo. – From the opening tip, Northwest Missouri State’s women’s basketball team showed a body language that clearly indicated it was tired of losing MIAA games.

The Bearcats knocked down three-pointers. They constantly regained leads when Southwest Baptist swayed momentum in its favor.

And most importantly, Northwest made plays down the stretch to pull out a 79-72 victory over Baptist Saturday afternoon at Meyer Sports Center for its first MIAA victory of the season.

“I was extremely pleased from the start,” Northwest coach Buck Scheel said. “I talked to them this morning after shoot around about competing. We are going to give ourselves a chance to win if we go out and compete. I really felt we set the tone early even when we had a couple of bad fouls and bad decisions, we kept competing.”

The Bearcats definitely showed that grit in the final 4 minutes.

A drive and layup by Jasmin Howe with 3:25 left gave Northwest a 73-68 lead and it grew to 75-68 on a basket by Tanya Meyer with 2:35 remaining.

“This win feels amazing,” said Meyer, who finished with 19 points. “It was much needed for sure. We all, as a team, had a pretty good feeling today.”

Another winning play for Northwest came on the defensive end with 27 seconds left. Northwest was clinging to a 75-72 lead when Mallory McAndrews took an offensive foul under Baptist’s basket.

“That was huge,” Howe said. “That just grew our momentum. That was a game-changer for us.”

Northwest got the ball back. Sophomore Arbrie Benson was fouled and she rattled in both free throws, giving Northwest a 77-72 lead with 15.6 seconds left.

“I just tried to relax and focus on making the free throws,” said Benson, who finished with a career-best 23 points.

Howe sealed the win with two more free throws with 6 seconds left.

After the final buzzer and handshake, the Bearcats raced to the locker room with smiles on their faces for a well-deserved team victory.

“This was exactly what we needed right now,” said Howe, who finished with 20 points. “We have been struggling a little bit. We have been right there in games. It shows once we keep our composure, we can go out there and win. We can take nothing but positive from this game.”

The Bearcats showed mental toughness in the third quarter. They gave up the first six points to start the quarter and fell behind 45-43. It didn’t get them down. Northwest scored the next five points for a 48-45 lead.

Much of the third quarter went that way. There were six more lead changes before the third quarter ended with the game tied 61-61.

“He (Scheel) has been stressing that we just need to go out and compete,” Meyer said. “If we compete, this happens.”

The Bearcats showed their competitive fire from the opening tipoff.

“We got together last night and just tried to get ourselves to stay focus and get a win,” Benson said. “We did pretty good today of staying focused and competing. It was about time to get on the winning track.”

Northwest came out and played its best first quarter in conference play and that carried the Bearcats to a 43-39 halftime lead.

The Bearcats started the game with a three-pointer by Meyer that gave Northwest a 3-0 lead. It was a harbinger of things to come. Northwest went 9 for 16 on three-pointers in the first half.

Despite the positive start, Northwest needed a few minutes to find its stride. Four different times, Southwest Baptist took leads in the first quarter. The last came at 15-14.

Northwest regained the lead at 17-15 on a three-pointer by McAndrews. Southwest Baptist tied it one last time in first quarter. A three-pointer by Benson followed by a two-point field goal by Benson gave Northwest a 22-17 lead.

The Bearcats concluded the first quarter with a three-pointer by Howe, making it 25-17.

“I think the first quarter we were getting shots and hitting them,” Meyer said.

Northwest scored the first four points in the second quarter for a 29-17 advantage. Baptist responded with eight straight points, closing to 29-25. The Bearcats didn’t panic. They regrouped and went on an 8-2 run for a 37-27 lead.

“You could tell today they had each other’s back,” Scheel said. “If somebody had a bad turnover or maybe ran something wrong, they were out there picking each other up.

Even though Northwest allowed Baptist to cut into its lead, the Bearcats played well enough to keep the lead and go into halftime ahead.

“That is the big thing is we didn’t lose our composure,” Howe said. “We didn’t panic and kept playing our game. It was a great victory.”

— Northwest Athletics —