By David Boyce – Northwest Athletics
MARYVILLE, Mo. – Like the previous game, Northwest Missouri State’s men’s basketball team basically won Saturday’s contest against Central Oklahoma in the first half.
But in stark contrast to the 15 three-pointers the Bearcats made in the first half Thursday, Northwest used a suffocating defense to smother the Bronchos at Bearcat Arena. It offset the three-for-15 shooting from three-point range in the first half by the Bearcats.
Northwest allowed a paltry 12 points to Central Oklahoma in the first half and carried a 19-point lead into halftime. Although the advantage slipped to 11 on one occasion in the second half, Northwest was never threatened, winning 60-47.
“That was exciting,” said Northwest senior forward Brett Dougherty. “Holding them to 12 points feels pretty good, for sure. That is one thing we have been stressing a lot.”
Dougherty added that coach Ben McCollum wants them to not only play good defense, but play aggressively, being in lanes and being active.
“I think we did a pretty good job of that in the first half,” Dougherty said. “The score was kind of a result of that.”
Central Oklahoma entered the game 6-1 overall and 1-0 in the MIAA. The Bronchos are a good team. But once again Northwest, 8-0 overall and 2-0 in the MIAA, proved its No. 1 ranking in the NABC coaches top 25 is justified.
The Bearcats knew how to respond to the challenge it faced midway through the second half when Central Oklahoma closed to 39-28 on the strength of an 11-3 run by the Bronchos.
Northwest stayed calm. The Bearcats got a basket from senior Chris-Ebou Ndow and then senior Justin Pitts scored. After Central Oklahoma made a free throw, Ndow received a pass from Joey Witthus for a wide-open three and Ndow nailed it.
Less than a minute later, Pitts fed Ndow sprinting down the baseline and that led to a Ndow dunk, making it 50-30. A minute later, Pitts drove and passed to a wide-open Witthus behind the three-point arc and he rattled home a trey to make it 55-32.
“We shouldn’t have let them get back into the game,” said Ndow, who finished with 13 points and nine rebounds. “Coach preached at halftime to keep the pedal to the metal like we did in the first half.
“They got on a run. Every good team is going to get a run. We tried to stop the bleeding and the offense came through in the second half and then we started figuring some things out on defense again. We do whatever it takes to win.”
In the first half, the Bearcats proved their success is built on gritty defense. And oh boy, did the Bearcats play some defense in the first 20 minutes.
Northwest limited the Bronchos to a mere five field goals in the first half and that allowed the Bearcats to go into halftime with a healthy 31-12 lead.
“We have a lot of guys who can hit a lot of threes and are versatile,” Dougherty said. “It is on the defensive end that we don’t think we are as good as we can be. We have a lot of length. If we are more aggressive and bring that every single game, I think we can be really good.”
And what about the three-point shooting? Well late in the half, sophomore Ryan Welty drilled a long three-pointer that increased Northwest’s lead to 28-12. The final points in the half was another three-pointer from freshman Ryan Hawkins.
But most of the lead was built on defense. Northwest slowly jumped to a 14-4 lead and maintained a double-digit advantage the rest of the half. When shots weren’t falling for the Bearcats, they made sure Central Oklahoma wasn’t going to score either.
Playing big offensively for the Bearcats was Dougherty, who powered his way inside for three buckets in the paint. His last power move gave Northwest a 23-9 lead.
The hounding defense by Northwest forced 14 turnovers. Meanwhile, the Bearcats only had two turnovers. That discrepancy helped Northwest take 27 shots compared to 18 for the Bronchos.
“The last couple of games we have been really on,” Ndow said. “Offensively, we are fine. We have a lot of different weapons. Defensively, we definitely have something to prove. It is not a question of if we can do it; it’s can we bring it every single night. The last couple of nights we have. We have to keep it going.”
— Northwest Athletics —