By David Boyce, Northwest Athletics

MARYVILLE, Mo. – More than 10 minutes remained in the first half and Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team already made eight three-pointers, held a 20-point lead and caused Southwest Baptist to call two timeouts.

Lone Northwest senior Conner Crooker couldn’t have asked for a better start Saturday afternoon in his final home game at Bearcat Arena.

“It wasn’t perfect,” Crooker said. “I fouled out, but it was a nice way to go out, especially with the win, going undefeated at home and everything we accomplished. It was pretty nice.”

The hot start never left a doubt about the outcome. The Bearcats rolled to their 12th straight victory, winning 87-63 and improving to 22-5 overall and 19-3 in MIAA. Northwest finished five games ahead of the second-place team.

“We have to keep working,” said Crooker, who finished with 17 points. “Coach does a good job of having us work hard every day no matter what the situation is or if we are on a win streak or anything like that. We are going to keep doing what we are doing.

“We haven’t won the MIAA Tournament in a while. We are going down there to win it.”

Next for the Bearcats is their quarterfinal game in the MIAA Tournament. Northwest will play at 6 p.m. Friday at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City.

“We definitely have a lot of confidence,” said junior Zach Schneider, who made six three-pointers and finished with 18 points. “We did a better job in the second half than we did in previous games. Against Emporia State, we didn’t do very well in that aspect. We finished the game like we wanted to.”

The game started with sophomore Justin Pitts swishing a three for the first points of the game.

A minute later, Schneider nailed a three-pointer that gave Northwest an 8-2 lead. At this point, Southwest Baptist needed to call the fire department because the Bearcats had ignited a three-point blaze.

Pitts, who finished with 24 points, made a three-pointer and then Crooker got in the act with his first three-pointer, giving Northwest a 14-2 lead.

“We knew if our guards were able to penetrate and dish, we were going to get good looks,” Schneider said. “We were definitely ready for it.”

After a few harmless baskets by Southwest Baptist, the Bearcats turned a blaze into an inferno. Crooker became the main culprit. Back-to-back treys by him gave Northwest a 26-6 lead. That’s when Southwest Baptist called its second timeout.

But Northwest stayed hot. A three-pointer by Schneider made it 31-10. Northwest was nine for 10 on three-pointers at that point. And when the Bearcats started missing a few threes, they started hitting two-point field goals. They expanded their lead to 50-22 late in the first half.

“Their game plan allowed us to shoot all those three,” Crooker said. “We were going to keep doing what we were doing. We are confident in our shooters. We were going to knock down shots.”

When halftime arrived, Northwest held a 52-26 lead. The shooting percentages were simply unbelievable. The Bearcats were 12 for 17 in three-point shots for 70.6 percent. Overall, Northwest was 20 for 29 for 69 percent.

The Bearcats also played stellar defense, limiting Southwest Baptist to 10 field goals in 27 attempts for 37 percent.

It was the type of first half Crooker will always remember. He went 4 for 7 on three-point shots and scored 14 points. Schneider was even better going 5 for 6 from three-point range for 15 points.

No drama existed in the second half. Northwest held a 63-32 lead with 15 minutes left. The only mystery left was whether Northwest could break its single-game three-point record of 20.

Eight minutes into the second half, Northwest was at 13 three-pointers. The Bearcats were attacking the basket more. Schneider made the 14th three-pointer for Northwest with 11:33 left, giving Northwest a 68-40 lead. Northwest finished with 16 three-pointers.

— Northwest Athletics —