By David Boyce
MARYVILLE, Mo. – When Northwest Missouri State women’s basketball team avoided turnovers, the offense flowed well.
Unfortunately, the Bearcats had too many turnovers to keep pace with Fort Hays State Saturday afternoon at Bearcat Arena. Northwest lost 71-52.
Too often, the Bearcats telegraphed their passes, which allowed Fort Hays players to get their hands in the passing lane and steal the ball. Other times, the Bearcats were simply careless.
Northwest committed 12 turnovers in the first half and that contributed to an eight-point halftime deficit.
The Bearcats needed to clean up the miscues in the second half to make a run at the Tigers. It didn’t happen. Northwest committed an additional 17 turnovers in the second half.
Northwest quickly fell behind 40-28 early in the second half and faced a double-digit deficit most of the final 20 minutes.
Every time the Bearcats appeared to gain some momentum, a turnover halted all potential scoring runs. Northwest shot the ball well in the second half, making 10-of-22 from the field for 46 percent.
The turnovers, though, allowed Fort Hays to take 10 shots more than the Bearcats.
One bright spot for Northwest was freshman forward Tanya Meyer. She came off the bench and scored 10 points.
Despite going into halftime down 36-28, Northwest put together one of its best half of basketball in MIAA play.
In the opening 12 minutes, the Bearcats matched Fort Hays on the offensive end. There were eight lead changes during that span. Shelby Mustain scored on the inside and Taylor Shull hit a few jumpers.
All the momentum was in favor of the Bearcats when Mustain scored to give Northwest a 16-15. Northwest failed to increase its lead on several occasions because of a few unforced turnovers.
Fort Hays regained the lead at 17-16, and then Northwest hit one of its cold spells that has hampered the Bearcats so far this season. The Tigers took advantage and extended their lead to 33-22.
Instead of letting the deficit get out of hand, the Bearcats battled back. Shull and Ariel Easton made back-to-back driving layups late in the first half that helped Northwest close to 33-28.
— Northwest Athletics —