By David Boyce
JOPLIN Mo. – The wake-up call for the Northwest Missouri State women’s basketball team sounded in the third quarter Saturday afternoon at Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
But with their eyes finally open, the Bearcats saw they trailed by 20 points against Missouri Southern. Northwest nearly made it all up before falling 71-70.
“I told them after the game that the second-half team is the team I want to coach,” Northwest coach Buck Scheel said. “The first half I don’t know where that came from. It was really disappointing to have to watch it and sit through it.
“My halftime talk to them was pretty short. There was nothing I was going to do for them to go out and make a change. It was all on their shoulders and they came out and competed and finally gave themselves a chance to win the game.”
It looked really bleak for Northwest when it trailed 41-21 in the third quarter. But at the darkest moment, the Bearcats found sunshine. A three-pointer by senior Jasmin Howe followed by a three-pointer from junior Tanya Meyer closed the gap to 44-29.
By the time the third quarter ended, Northwest trailed 47-35. The Bearcats continued their hot shooting to start the fourth quarter. A three-pointer by Meyer dropped the deficit to single-digits at 47-38.
A couple of minutes later, Meyer made two free throws to make it 51-45 with 7:45 left in the game. The Bearcats were back in the game with plenty of time left.
Unfortunately, Northwest gave up the next four points to fall behind by 10. Over the next four minutes, the deficit fluctuated between eight and 12 points.
“It was good to continue to fight back, but while we were making that run and cutting it down to six, you have to keep going,” Scheel said. “You can’t have breakdowns. You have to keep fighting.”
Trailing 64-52, the Bearcats made one more push that started with a three-pointer by Meyer and a layup by sophomore Arbrie Benson with 2:37 left. Meyer added a free throw 23 seconds later to close the gap to 64-58.
With 50 seconds left, Northwest pulled to within three at 65-62 on a driving layup by Howe.
More intrigue struck with 21 seconds left when junior Caitlin Sudduth hit a three-pointer which reduced the deficit to two at 67-65. Southern, though, hit just enough free throws in the final 19 seconds to secure the win. A three-pointer by Sudduth with .8 seconds left made it a one-point game.
Meyer finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds, Benson had 14 and Sudduth came off the bench and scored 12.
In the fast half, Northwest seemed sluggish for both quarters and went into halftime trailing 31-16.
The Bearcats made three field goals in the first quarter and scored eight points. They did the exact same thing in the second quarter. Northwest wound up going six for 23 from the field for 26.1 percent in the first half.
If Northwest could have shot the ball a little bit better, the Bearcats would have been much closer because Southern only shot 31.3 percent from the field.
“It was disappointing because we put in so much time preparing for games, not just us coaches, but the players,” Scheel said of the first half. “You do the weights, the practices, the scouts and then to go out and not play with effort, toughness or any pride, you are not giving yourself a chance to win or be in the ball game. That was probably the most disappointing part of that.”
— Northwest Athletics —