By David Boyce – Northwest Athletics
MARYVILLE, Mo. – Two hours before tipoff for Northwest Missouri State’s home-opener at Bearcat Arena, men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum stood in the tunnel and remarked how Metro State’s pressing zone defense will pose some problems for his squad.
McCollum’s words weren’t coach speak. He knows he has a good squad. After all, the Bearcats, the defending national champions with three returning starters, won their first two games.
But McCollum realized it was going to take a while for his squad to figure out the Roadrunners’ defense that at times was as tricky as solving a Rubik’s Cube. For millennials, the Rubik’s Cube was a toy that became hugely popular in the early 1980’s.
As it turns out, seniors Justin Pitts and Chris-Ebou Ndow and sophomore Ryan Welty all know about the Rubik’s Cube, which probably shouldn’t be surprising in the Google world we live in. However, two of the players admitted they don’t know how to solve it.
Oh, back to the home-opener Friday evening. Northwest solved the defensive puzzle applied by Metro State and overcame an eight-point halftime deficit to win 69-58.
“You have to compete to win,” McCollum said. “We didn’t have a great week of practice. We weren’t locked in. You could see that tonight when we got beat on some back cuts. It was just a lot of little things we didn’t do. We did get a lot tougher in the second half, defensively in particular, getting rebounds and finishing plays.”
Behind their salty defense, the Bearcats improved their efficiency on offense in the second half to put the Roadrunners away. The second-half comeback started immediately with two free throws by Welty.
After Metro State scored, Pitts answered with a basket. He finished with 20 points and became the first player in the program’s history to score 2,000 points.
“It mean’s a lot,” Pitts said. “I never thought I could do something like this coming out of high school. I have been surrounded by such great teammates and coaches that give me the confidence. I am sure I will enjoy it a lot more after the season.”
As nice as that accolade was for Pitts, he knows that the success of Northwest is built on team play.
“It helps us a lot,” Pitts said of team play. “Coach gets on us a lot in practice that we have to be together the whole game or we will end up losing. They (Roadrunners) came out hard and played us tough every minute.”
Team play and a couple of three-point daggers by Welty turned the momentum in Northwest’s favor. Welty’s second trey closed the gap to 43-41 with 16:28 left.
“He is a big-time three-maker,” Pitts said. “He always hits them at the right time.”
Two minutes later, Northwest took the lead for good at 46-45 on a three-pointer by freshman Ryan Hawkins.
Metro State managed to stay close over the next six minutes. Northwest started to build separation on a three-point play by Pitts that made it 55-51 with 8 minutes left. Ndow followed with two free throws.
“We started to be more aggressive,” said Ndow, who finished with 19 points. “Obviously, against a press team, you kind of get on your heels a little bit. We have a lot of new guys who are not used to it.
“Coming out in the second half and attacking the press meant we were going to get a lot of open shots. We knocked them down in the second half.”
With 3 minutes left, Ndow hit a three-pointer that gave Northwest a 62-53 lead. And the game was safely in the Bearcats’ hands when Pitts hit a three-pointer with 2:25 remaining that made it 65-55.
“We started slowing it down; we actually started getting a lot of stops and that helped our offense,” said Welty, who finished with 12 points. “This was big. “It is always good to overcome adversity. It was a good win for us.”
The combination of hot shooting from Cameron Williams and a full court, trapping zone defense by Metro State sent Northwest into halftime behind 39-31.
The Bearcats started well, getting three-pointers from senior Ndow and junior Joey Witthus for an early 6-2 lead.
A three-point play by senior Brett Dougherty kept Northwest ahead. The lead blossomed to 13-7. From that point on, Northwest struggled to find an offensive rhythm. Three-pointers rimmed out for the Bearcats. Other times, Northwest turned the ball over.
Metro State took advantaged and scored the next eight points for a 15-13 lead. It looked like momentum was going to switch back to Northwest’s side when Welty dunked to tie the game at 19-19 with 8:30 left in the first half.
Northwest, though, never took off. Later in the first half, Williams drilled a couple of three-pointers. His second one extended the Roadrunners lead to 35-26. Williams scored 15 points in the first half, going six for 10 from the field. He finished with a game-high 21 points.
Ndow provided consistent offense for Northwest, making four of seven shots from the field for 12 points.
The big difference in the first half was Metro State going six for nine from beyond the arc while Northwest was four for 13 and had seven turnovers. The Bearcats turned the ball over only three times in the second half.
“In the second half, we just knew we had to play Bearcat basketball,” Ndow said.
— Northwest Athletics —