The Northwest Missouri State University men’s basketball team defeated Pittsburg State, 79-73, on Friday at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.
The Bearcats (25-3), advance to play in the MIAA semifinals against the winner of Central Missouri and Central Oklahoma.
Pittsburg State ends the season at 17-13 overall.
Justin Pitts scored a game-high 25 points on 7-of-14 shooting. He went 11-for-14 at the foul line, adding three rebounds and two assists.
Northwest held the Gorillas to just one offensive rebound, holding a 34-27 advantage on the glass for the game.
Key Northwest Statistics
– The Bearcats shot 42.9 percent (24-of-56) from the field and hit 23-of-32 (71.9 percent) attempts at the free throw line.
– Northwest hit on 8-of-27 three point attempts.
– Brett Dougherty had a game-high eight assists to go along with 12 points and six rebounds.
– Xavier Kurth had 14 points and six rebounds. He was 2-for-4 from beyond the arc and was 4-of-6 at the free throw line.
– Chris-Ebou Ndow returned to action and scored 10 points, knocking down a pair of three pointers. He had six rebounds.
– Ryan Welty hit three three-pointers and finished with nine points, four rebounds, one assist and one block.
– Northwest outscored the Gorillas 16-6 off turnovers and had eight second chance points to Pittsburg State’s two.
– The Bearcats forced 11 PSU turnovers and held a 17-3 advantage in bench points.
Key Northwest Sequence
– With 12 minutes to play in the first half, Pittsburg State took a 15-8 lead on the Bearcats. But Northwest stormed back, piecing together a 9-0 run to take its first lead of the game. Kurth started the sequence with a three pointer. After a Gorilla miss, Kurth hit a layup to pull Northwest to within two, 15-13. Kurth came up with a steal on the next possession, leading to a Pitts layup to tie the game. after the teams traded missed shots, Dougherty hit a layup to give the Bearcats a 17-15 lead.
– The Bearcats finished the game by hitting 7-of-9 free throw attempts with Pitts knocking down five straight. The Gorillas had cut the lead to 73-68 with 1:16 left but Northwest came up with a pair of defensive stops, leading to five points at the charity stripe.
Up Next
– Northwest will face Central Oklahoma in the MIAA Semifinal round on Saturday at 8:15 p.m.