By David Boyce – Northwest Athletics
HAYS, Kan. – Northwest Missouri State’s men’s basketball entered the historic Gross Memorial Coliseum early Saturday evening against Fort Hays State, facing its most adversity since December 2015 when it lost consecutive conference games just before Christmas break.
The Bearcats were coming off a tough loss on Thursday at Nebraska-Kearney, and senior point guard Justin Pitts suffered a mild concussion.
Before tipoff, the Northwest players knew they wouldn’t have Pitts, the school’s all-time leading scorer and reigning Division II Player of the Year.
As good as Pitts is, Northwest has never relied on one player to win games. The Bearcats proved it once again with a hard-fought 72-67 victory. The win lifted Northwest to 16-2 overall and 8-2 in the MIAA.
“This was big,” Northwest senior Brett Dougherty said. “We could have hung our heads and got upset about the loss and Justin, too. You can start making excuses. But that is not what we did. All the tough situations we have been through we know to keep our heads up and have that positivity.”
Northwest never trailed in the second half, but there were definitely some anxious moments in the final 8 minutes as Fort Hays tried desperately to avoid its first home loss of the season. The Tigers couldn’t rattle Northwest even when they went to a full-court press in the final 2 minutes and the Bearcats were without their play-making point guard.
“Justin is obviously the best player in Division II,” said Northwest senior Chris-Ebou Ndow, who finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds. “But we pride ourselves on being a great team. It is not just one player on the offensive end and one player on the defensive end. It is a team collection.
“We showed it today that without the best player we can grind away a win.”
The Bearcats appeared to be in total control the first 10 minutes in the second half. When Fort Hays closed to 41-32, junior Joey Witthus knocked down a three-pointer. A few minutes later, Witthus gave Northwest a 50-36 lead with another trey.
Those two treys showed the air ball Witthus shot a few minutes earlier had no affect on him. Another example of overcoming adversity.
“I remember one point in the game, Chris passed me the ball on the wing and I didn’t take the shot,” said Witthus, who finished with 15 points. “He was yelling at me to shoot it, shoot it. Everyone has confidence in each other and trust each other. No matter if you make a mistake, you still got to go out there and play your game.”
Fort Hays, which dropped to 12-6 and 5-4, battled back when it trailed 51-41 with less than 10 minutes remaining. With 6:30 left, the Tigers stared at a 53-48 deficit. Northwest responded with a strong inside basket from senior Brett Dougherty.
After a free throw by Fort Hays, Dougherty knocked down another tough basket in the paint, increasing Northwest’s lead to 57-49 with just over 5 minutes left.
“If they are on our shooters and I am 1-on-1, my teammates have a lot of confidence in me to go out and score,” said Dougherty, who finished with 13 points.
Fort Hays battled back once again. The Tigers trailed only 57-53 with 3:30 left. Witthus pushed the lead back to six on two free throws but then he fouled out with 3 minutes remaining.
Northwest’s lead slipped to four with 2:36 when Kyler Kinnamon drove inside for a layup, making it 60-56.
Thirty seconds later, when Northwest needed two free throws, Dougherty stepped to the line and made both to give Northwest a 63-56 lead. Dougherty was one for six from the free throw line before he made those two. Dougherty showed he was able to overcome adversity.
“It was big just from a confidence standpoint,” Dougherty said. “Obviously, my confidence wasn’t very high at that point. We knew we had to hit some free throws down the stretch. We didn’t do a great job of it, but everyone counts.”
Strong defense and a patient offense propelled Northwest to a 33-20 halftime lead.
“We played really well,” Witthus said. “I think the biggest thing tonight, which was good to see was we came out and competed. We made some mistakes, but we competed the whole game. That is what we have to keep doing moving forward.”
The Bearcats only trailed 2-0 and 5-2 in the first half. Three straight free throws by sophomore Ryan Welty quickly erased the puny deficit. Northwest followed those points with a basket from Dougherty and another by senior Xavier Kurth.
Northwest took an 11-10 lead into the first media timeout and wasted little time increasing its advantage to 16-10 on a three-point play by Ndow and another basket by Kurth.
In the slow-paced game, Fort Hays stayed close, pulling to within two at 18-16. Northwest, though, stayed with its game of moving the ball inside on nearly every possession.
The constant threat of inside baskets opened up the outside in the final few minutes in the first half. Leading 24-20, Northwest got back-to-back three-pointers from Welty. Ndow added another trey and pushed the Bearcats’ lead to 13.
The efficiency on offense was one of the keys for Northwest. The Bearcats went 13 for 20 from the field for 65 percent. On defense, Northwest limited Fort Hays to eight field goals.
“It was important for us to come out firing and get off to a good start so we would have our confidence throughout the game,” Ndow said.
— Northwest Athletics —