EVANSVILLE, Indiana – The No. 1-ranked Northwest Missouri State University men’s basketball team advanced to the national semifinals of the NCAA Division II Tournament with a 55-51 victory over the Mercyhurst University Lakers.
Northwest (36-0 overall) advanced to the program’s second ever national semifinal appearance behind a game-high 20 points from redshirt freshman Trevor Hudgins. As the closing second of the first half wound down, Hudgins had three points. However, he drove the length of the floor after a Mercyhurst bucket tied the game at 22 and sank a leaner at the buzzer to give Northwest a 24-22 lead at the break.
The Bearcats largest run of the game continued as the second half got underway. Northwest scored the first five points of the second half and opened up a 29-22 lead to close out the 7-0 spurt. Hudgins made a layup with 10:26 to play to give Northwest its biggest lead of the game at 43-32.
Mercyhurst cut the lead to three at 49-46 on a conventional three-point play from MiyKah McIntosh with :57 seconds left in the game. Following a miss on the front end of a 1-and-1 by Hudgins, Mercyhurst’s Zach McIntire missed a game-tying triple from the corner and Northwest’s Ryan Hawkins secured the rebound with :27 ticks to play. Hudgins was fouled again but he hit a pair to extend the lead back to five at 51-46 with :17 left.
Tyler Dougherty stepped up and swished two free throws with :11 remaining to give Northwest a seven-point cushion at 53-46. Mercyhurst’s Derrick Ellis Jr. drove for a layup and then Northwest’s Xavier Rhodes answered with a layup of his own before the Lakers’s Ellis buried a triple at the buzzer to give Northwest the 55-51 triumph.
Northwest will play St. Anselm in the national semifinals on Thursday at 6 p.m. St. Anselm scored a 91-81 win over Nova Southeastern in the first quarterfinal.
NOTES: Northwest has won 30 consecutive games on neutral floors … Northwest extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 36 in a row … Northwest set a school record and an MIAA record with 36 wins this season – besting the previous mark of 35 set the by 2016-17 Bearcats … Joey Witthus set the Northwest single-season three-point record with 109 – surging past Zach Schneider’s mark of 108 set in 2016-17 … Witthus has scored 743 points this season – only 11 shy of Justin Pitts’s school record of 754 points set in 2016-17.
— Northwest Athletics —