By David Boyce
MARYVILLE, Mo. – The Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team is the 2014-15 MIAA regular season champions, which is music to the ears of 2,480 fans who filled Bearcat Arena.
The Bearcats turned in a classic performance against their basketball rival Central Missouri Saturday afternoon and came away with an 83-73 victory in a winner-take-all regular season finale that lived up to expectations.
The energy inside Bearcat Arena was scintillating. Once Central Missouri players left the court, the students were allowed on it to celebrate with the players.
“This was pretty sweet,” said senior Matt Wallace. “I wasn’t expecting them to come out like that. The crowd was the best I have seen since I have been here. It was really awesome for all of us.”
Grant Cozad, the other senior, felt the same way.
“Holy cow, I can’t even explain it,” said Cozad, who finished with a team-high 21 points. “I love it. I love all these guys. But this is just the beginning. We have bigger goals to accomplish.”
For Cozad and Wallace, it was a storybook ending for their final home game. It didn’t matter that Cozad fouled out with 3:20 left and Wallace departed with 2:35 remaining. They knew their younger teammates were going to finish the job.
“When you done with 2 minutes left, you know you are still going to win it,” Wallace said. “You are walking off and upset, but the guys tell you we are going to win it. We are going to get it for you. It is pretty awesome.”
And wow, the Bearcats continued to play at a high level in those final 2 minutes left when they led 74-70.
By closing out a thrilling victory, Northwest heads to the MIAA Tournament on a nine-game winning streak. They improved to 22-5 overall and 15-4 in the MIAA. Northwest also snapped Central’s seven-game winning streak. The Mules will head into the conference tournament 23-5 and 14-5.
Whatever happens in the conference tournament will be hard to top what took place late Saturday afternoon.
“It is very special to win like this for the two seniors,” freshman Justin Pitts said. “The whole season we have worked for this for Matt and Grant. I am just glad we won it for them.”
The Bearcats came in determined. It was Central who ended Northwest’s season a year ago in overtime in the NCAA Division II regional championship game. The Mules also knocked off Northwest earlier this season in Warrensburg.
Central oozed with confidence that it would once again beat the Bearcats. With 14:33 remaining, the Mules held a 51-44 lead. It seemed like every shot the Mules put up went in. They shot 70 percent from the field in the first half and finished the game at 63 percent.
The Bearcats, though, never allowed it to bother them. They just dug deeper to get a few stops. They got enough to tie the game 53-53 on a three-pointer by Zach Schneider with 11:46 left.
Central responded by scoring the next four points. Over the next 5 minutes, the Mules maintained the lead and it even moved to five at 63-58.
With 7 minutes left, Northwest started its victorious surge. A driving layup by Pitts pulled the Bearcats to within two at 66-64.
After a stop, junior Conner Crooker delivered the shot of the game. The shot clock was down to one second. Crooker was at least 25 feet out and guarded. He heaved what look like a desperation attempt that swished through. The sweet sound of that shot gave Northwest its first lead in the second half at 67-66 with 6:01 left.
“I wanted that shot,” Crooker said. “I thought Pitts was going to give it to me a little earlier. He threw it to me and I threw it up. It felt really good right when I released it.”
About a minute later, the Mules took their last lead at 68-67 on two free throws. And then Northwest put together a championship final 5 minutes.
It started with a three-pointer by Schneider that gave the Bearcats a 70-68 lead with 4:56 left. Pitts followed with a layup and pushed the lead to four at 72-68.
Central never got closer than three points the rest of the way. Part of the reason why Northwest was able to expand its lead in the final few minutes was the free throw shooting of freshman Brett Dougherty.
Dougherty entered the game shooting 41 percent from the line. Throughout February, Dougherty showed steady improvement. When he knocked down two free throws with 56 seconds left, Dougherty gave the Bearcats an 81-71 lead. He went 5-for-6 from the line.
“He spent a lot of hours,” Wallace said. “He has been working on it throughout the season. It is starting to pay off for him.”
In the end, the Bearcats won the way they have all season. They played a special brand of team basketball. Wallace finished with nine assists and Pitts added six. Northwest committed only six turnovers the entire game.
Pitts also scored 19 points and Schneider added 18. The beauty of these Bearcats is they simply don’t care who is scoring points. In the past few games, it was Crooker putting up big numbers. Crooker only had six Saturday, but he hit a shot that will be talked about for years to come.
“It was a battle and it was amazing,” Crooker said of the game.
Bottom line, sharing the basketball wins games. Northwest finished with 17 assists and Central had seven assists.
In the first half, Northwest went into the locker room down only 37-36 even though the Mules missed just six shots the entire half. It was an amazing performance by the Bearcats to keep the game so close.
The blistering hot shooting by the Mules staked them to a 23-13 lead. Northwest, though, never became flustered. The Bearcats kept battling away and with 4:48 left, tied the game at 31-31 on a basket by Brett Dougherty. Less than a minute later, Northwest took its first lead at 33-31 on a basket by Anthony Woods.
“We knew they were not going to keep that up,” Wallace said. “We had to stay positive and we did.”
An 11-0 run by Northwest turned a 31-25 deficit into a 36-31 lead. All the momentum was with the Bearcats when Central responded in the last 2 minutes, scoring the final six points in the first half.
“At halftime coach Mac (Ben McCollum) told us not to give up,” Pitts said. “He told us to keep fighting and play our game and we will come out with a win.”
— Northwest Sports Information —