By David Boyce
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – In reaching its first ever Final Four in NCAA Division II, Northwest Missouri State made some remarkable plays in its 79-70 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas College Wednesday evening at the Sanford Pentagon.
The Bearcats got a couple of two-point field goals from senior Zach Schneider in the final 10 minutes when Northwest needed them to stay ahead of the Spartans. Junior Justin Pitts broke his single-season scoring record, going over 700 points for the season. He now has 701 points, eclipsing last year’s mark of 693.
And junior Brett Dougherty made two clutch free throws with 1:47 left to stake Northwest to a 67-61 lead. It all played a role in the Bearcats moving on.
Northwest, 33-1 and the No. 2 seed in the 2017 Elite Eight, will face No. 3 seed Lincoln Memorial at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
“This is big, obviously,” said Schneider, who finished with 16 points. “We had great fan support tonight. It is going to keep getting bigger. It is a big program win, but we are going to watch the next game and see who we are going to play.”
Although Northwest never trailed in the second half, the Spartans certainly made the Bearcats feel uncomfortable by staying close and utilizing a full-court press that gave Northwest a few problems such as turnovers and using timeouts.
“I think their press bothered us a little bit,” said Pitts, who finished with 26 points. “We got sped up a little bit, but we have been working on it all week in practice. I think we came in well prepared for the press.”
Early in the second half, Northwest finally got a couple of three-pointers to drop from Schneider and Chris-Ebou Ndow and that briefly helped the Bearcats build their first double-digit lead at 41-31.
The Spartans quickly responded by turning up its full-court pressure. They cut the deficit to 43-38 with 14:39 left in the second half.
“They sped us up throughout,” Northwest coach Ben McCollum said. “I thought offensively, we didn’t click for quite a while. We got off to a good start and took care of the ball.
“As the game progressed, they wore us down and we missed shots that I thought could have broken them a little bit.”
With just under 10 minutes left, Northwest held only a 47-45 lead when Schneider drilled a three-pointer.
“It was big. I was 0-for-6 in the first half,” said Schneider, who finished with 16 points. “At halftime, I said I was going down firing. That was my mentality.”
Two minutes after Schneider’s trey, Northwest was clinging to a 52-49 lead when Pitts hit a corner three-pointer and Schneider followed with another corner three-pointer, pushing the Bearcats lead to 58-49 with 6:50 left.
A minute later, Schneider did something rare this season. He came in with only one two-point field goal. Schneider made his second one when he got behind the Spartans’ full-court press and he scored a layup. He was also fouled. The free throw gave Northwest a 61-51 lead.
“I don’t think I had one of those since my freshman year,” Schneider said. “I was open. I made a good read. Anthony Woods made a good pass.”
Aquinas closed to 61-56 and Schneider did it again. He was behind the Spartans press defense and he made another layup, making it 63-56.
Northwest held just a 67-63 lead when Dougherty made an important layup, which was even bigger than his two free throws. Pitts followed with two free throws, increasing Northwest’s lead to 71-63 with a minute left.
“They make those runs and to stop those runs, you can’t miss shots when you get open,” McCollum said. “We couldn’t put them away because we were missing shots.”
On the strength of two three-pointers by Pitts, Northwest jumped to a quick 8-2 lead. The Bearcats surrendered the lead once at 18-16 and then scored the next four for a 20-18 lead.
From that point on, Northwest never trailed again in the first half and went into halftime with a 33-27 lead.
Defense, though, ruled the first half. Northwest shot 43.5 percent, making just 10 of 23 field goals. The Bearcats made it even tougher for Aquinas to score, holding the Spartans to 39.3 percent from the field.
— Northwest Athletics —