By David Boyce, Northwest Athletics
MARYVILLE, Mo. – Northwest Missouri State’s men’s basketball team played an ok first half. The Bearcats led most of the time and took a slim two-point lead into halftime against Missouri Southern.
But the Bearcats needed to rev up a couple more gears to beat Southern and maintain sole possession of first place in the MIAA.
Northwest found that higher level in the first 5 minutes of the second half and rode that spurt to a 76-75 victory over the Lions Wednesday evening in front of 1,472 fans at Bearcat Arena. The win lifted Northwest to 14-5 overall and 11-3 in conference.
“First of all, give credit to Missouri Southern,” said Northwest sophomore Justin Pitts. “They fought us hard at home.”
It was going to take a solid second half to put away the Lions, who fell to 11-9 and 8-6. Southern senior Taevaunn Prince was determined to hit his scoring average of 26.5, and he was more than halfway there after 20 minutes. And sophomore Charlie Brown tossed in six quick points with a 1 minute, 30 seconds left to keep Southern in striking distance.
So it was a good thing that Northwest started the second half outscoring the Lions 13-4 to build a 49-38 lead.
“It was huge,” said Northwest sophomore Chris-Ebou Ndow. “To start the game, we got off to a good start and then let up and let them get back into the game.”
At halftime, Ndow said coach Ben McCollum emphasized that they needed to get off to a good start in the second half and keep it.
“We did that,” Ndow said.
The Bearcats remained in control over the next 10 minutes and appeared to be in good shape when Pitts tossed an inside pass to Ndow for a layup that gave the Bearcats a 65-54 lead.
After Southern scored, Pitts did the same thing again. This time junior D’Vante Mosby benefitted from the slick pass and made a layup to once again put the Bearcats up 11.
“It all started on defense,” Pitts said. “We knew at halftime we had to buckle down. For me, I had to be more aggressive on offense and get my teammates involved and play with a pace that we all know we are capable of.”
Southern fought hard the rest of the way, forcing Northwest to make plays in the final minute to secure the win. Perhaps the biggest basket of the game for the Bearcats came with 23.9 seconds left. A nifty layup by Pitts gave Northwest a 73-69 lead.
The Lions, though, wouldn’t die. Prince’s final points came when he banked in a three-pointer with 2 seconds left to pull Southern within one. All Northwest needed to do was get the ball in play to win. Prince finished with 31 points.
“He is a very good player,” Pitts said. “We had to buckle down and try to stop him. He can create his shot anytime he wanted to.”
Northwest had a more balanced attack, getting 21 from Pitts, 17 from Ndow and 11 from sophomore Brett Dougherty.
In the first half, Northwest built 10-point leads of 16-6 and 23-13, but couldn’t sustain it. The Bearcats went into halftime with a narrow 36-34 lead.
The Bearcats had trouble stopping Prince, who went five for eight from the field and scored 14 points in the first half. Ndow nearly matched him, making four shots in six attempts and scoring 11 points.
Northwest was strong from the outside, going five for 10 from behind the arc. The Bearcats’ problems came with trying to slice through the zone defense. Several times they turned the ball over and a few other times they had their shot blocked. Southern had six blocks in the first half.
Despite those hiccups, Northwest only trailed 4-0 at the start of the game and they quickly bounced back from that early deficit by scoring the next 11 points.
— Northwest Athletics —