By David Boyce

MARYVILLE, Mo. – Four months in a college basketball season makes a big difference. Northwest Missouri State learned that lesson Saturday evening and fortunately it didn’t come with a heartbreaking loss.

Northwest, the No. 1 seed and host school in the Central Region, regrouped from a disastrous conclusion at the end of regulation and beat Upper Iowa 79-74 in overtime in front of 2,195 fans at Bearcat Arena.

“What a performance by Upper Iowa,” Northwest coach Ben McCollum said. “They are the eighth seed in the tournament and they gave us all that we could handle. They played unbelievable.

“We got caught in the moment a little bit. We missed shots we normally make and missed free throws we normally make. The thing that we did do was we didn’t let all the bad plays affect your competitiveness.”

In the season opener for both teams, Northwest beat Upper Iowa 87-53 on Nov. 11.

“I don’t remember that game,” Upper Iowa coach Brooks McKowen said with a laugh. “It wasn’t our best showing.

“But I am proud of what our guys did tonight. We battled. We did everything we could to win that game. I thought both teams deserved to win it.”

The Peacocks came oh so close to making Northwest’s magical season disappear. But the Bearcats had a few tricks up their sleeves in the 5-minute overtime to continue their March Madness run.

Northwest, 30-1, advances to the regional semifinal game for the fourth straight season, and will play 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

The way the end of regulation concluded and overtime started, the situation looked bleak for Northwest in front of one of the largest crowds ever at Bearcat Arena.

All the momentum was riding with the Peacocks, who hit a miracle three-pointer by Carson Parker to send the game in overtime. Parker then made two free throws at the start of overtime to give Upper Iowa a 65-63 lead.

Fortunately for Northwest, it has MIAA Player of the Year, junior Justin Pitts, on its side. Pitts tied the game with a floater and then made a three-point play to give Northwest a 68-65 lead. Pitts added another bucket with 2:20 left, increasing Northwest’s lead to 71-65. Upper Iowa never got closer than three points the rest of the game.

“I was trying to be aggressive and play my game,” said Pitts, who finished with a game-high 33 points. “After they scored on those two free throws, it was Chris-Ebou Ndow who came up to me and said, ‘take over. This is your game. Go out and play.’ It feels great to have your teammates have that confidence in you.”

There is a reason why teammates have confidence in Pitts’ scoring ability. He became the all-time leading scorer at Northwest Saturday evening.

“I didn’t know that,” Pitts said. “It is a big accomplishment for me as an individual, but right now I am not thinking about that. I am just getting ready for the next game.”

Missed free throws by Northwest in the final 7 minutes led to overtime. At one point, the Bearcats missed four straight free throws and that allowed Upper Iowa to turn a 56-49 deficit into a 58-56 lead with 3:30 left.

“They just made plays,” Northwest senior D’Vante Mosby said. “A lot of them were gutsy plays. A lot of them were on our mistakes as well. They did a really good job capitalizing on them.”

Northwest scored the next five points and held a 61-58 lead with 1:43 left. Leading 63-60 with 8 second left, Northwest had a chance to put the game away at the free throw line. The Bearcats only needed one. They missed both.

Those misses opened the door for Parker to make an amazing three-pointer. He dribbled around a defender twice and then fired a three-pointer at the top of the key that swished through the nets as the buzzer sounded.

“It was a big-time shot,” McCollum said. “My instinct was to cry, to be honest. But it really doesn’t do you a whole lot of good in that situation. So it is let’s go. We have 5 more minutes. You can’t let that break you.

“So much went wrong tonight, but what didn’t go wrong was our ability to compete. We competed.”

Parker, who finished with 20 points, also competed as he demonstrated with his clutch three-pointer.

“I got a glimpse of how much time was left,” Parker said. “I tried to get the best look I could. Obviously, we needed a three. I was fortunate enough it went in.”

In the first half, Northwest needed one hot stretch to take a 38-33 lead into halftime.

The Bearcats took a 7-4 lead early in the first half on a three-pointer by senior Zach Schneider. But it was clear Upper Iowa was going to stay close to the Bearcats.

The Peacocks tied the game at 15-15 and continued to make it tough for Northwest to get on a run.

Ahead 18-17, Northwest finally put together a spurt that created some separation. It started with a three-pointer by Pitts and a basket in the paint by senior Anthony Woods, who finished with 16 points

After Upper Iowa scored, Northwest went on a 10-2 run for a 33-21 lead. Pitts scored six points in the spurt. Seemingly in control with a 35-23 lead, the Bearcats started missing three-pointers and Upper Iowa clogged up the paint.

Solid defense by the Peacocks helped them crawl back in the game. They outscored Northwest 10-3 to close out the first half.

Upper Iowa found success offensively, going 15 for 27 from the field for 55.6 percent. Northwest wasn’t as efficient on offense, going 13 for 29 from the field for 44.8 percent.

In the end, Northwest prevailed.

“Survive and advance,” McCollum said.

— Northwest Athletics —