Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team needed to put in a little extra work to remain undefeated.

Two clutch free throws by junior Bryston Williams with 7.5 seconds left in overtime plus some stellar defense propelled the Bearcats to a thrilling 73-70 overtime victory over Pittsburg State Wednesday evening Bearcat Arena.

“The game is kind of in your hands,” said Williams, who finished with a game-high 22 points. “You can give a little spread on the score. I just thought about practice and tried to knock them down.”

Williams was sensational at the line, making 17 of 18 and that mirrored his teammates. Northwest went 30 for 32 from the charity strip and needed just about every one of them.

Simply put, both teams put on a fantastic display of old-fashioned basketball in front of 1,106 fans.

Northwest and Pitt played hard on defense, shared the basketball on offense and didn’t do any unnecessary talking after important baskets.

“It was exactly like that,” said Northwest junior DeeShaun Cooper. “It was nothing but love out there. It was the game of basketball, and we came out here to play.”

The victory lifted Northwest to 8-0 overall and 3-0 in the MIAA. Pitt dropped to 5-4 and 1-2.

“This was our first overtime game and we came together and overcame,” said Cooper, who finished with 15 points. “We needed this to see how much we could come together.”

For a while, it appeared Northwest was going to take care of business in regulation. The Bearcats scored the last four points in the first half to grab a two-point halftime lead.

Northwest started the second half on fire, scoring the first nine points for a 39-28 lead.

Pitt remained poised. They kept working the ball around until it got good shots. They slowly chipped away and eventually tied the game 49-49 with 6:08 left.

Williams played strong throughout the second half and kept driving to the basket and getting fouled. With 2:53 left, Williams dropped two more free throws to give the Bearcats 58-55 lead.

“I got to the free throw line a couple of times so I tried to keep doing it and help my team out as much as I could,” Williams said.

Northwest held a 60-58 lead in the closing seconds when Pitt grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a short jumper by Eric Ray with 2 seconds left in regulation.

Cooper tried a desperation half-court shot that hit off the front rim. The game went into overtime.

“We were able to sustain that blow when the guy hit that last second two-pointer to send it to overtime,” Northwest coach Ben McCollum said. “We were able to come out in overtime and regain our composure and regain our momentum and win the game says a lot about our character.

“In the MIAA, as everybody knows, you got to have talent, but everybody has talent. It’s about who can handle adversity and who can handle another team’s run and who can get big stops when you need to. We’ve been able to do that in our first three conference games.”

Overtime started well for Northwest. Justin Clark hit a three-pointer. The Bearcats quickly built a 65-60 lead and then hit their free throws to prevent Pitt from tying or going ahead.

“A game like this,” said Williams, “helps us build on crucial times when we really need each other.”

A significant reason Northwest entered Wednesday’s game without a loss is because a player off the bench steps in and delivers.

In the first half against Pitt, freshman guard Matt Wallace was that player. He knocked both his field goal attempts and both free throws for seven points.

Wallace’s contributions gave the Bearcats a slim 30-28 lead at halftime.

Northwest scored the first four points of the game and then had trouble scoring. The minor drought allowed Pitt to build a 14-9 lead.

The Bearcats tied the game at 14-14 and then saw Pitt score the next seven points for a 21-14 lead. Northwest fought back to within one at 21-20.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

Northwest Missouri State women’s basketball team started the second half the same as the first: slow.

It cost the Bearcats dearly as they faced a 19-point deficit 4 minutes into the second half against undefeated Pittsburg State.

But the circumstance the Bearcats faced Wednesday evening at Bearcat Arena failed to crush their spirit.

Despite an 84-63 loss, Northwest put together several spurts that energized the team and the crowd.

Shelly Martin, who got hot, started one of the runs. She helped the Bearcats close to 56-47 with 11:30 left in the game.

Northwest, though, had trouble getting closer because of an outside-inside game by Pitt. On this occasion it was the inside scoring of Larissa Richards that increased the Gorillas’ lead to 58-47.

A three-pointer by Brooke Conley gave Pitt a 63-50 a little later.

The Bearcats, though, had another run in them. This time it came from freshman Annie Mathews, who had back-to-back inside buckets that dropped Northwest’s deficit to eight at 65-57.

“In the last three games we’ve been so close, a point when we were down six or seven and they would hit one big shot and we would put our heads down,” Martin said.

“Once we figure out how to overcome that, we will be pretty tough to beat.”

Over the next couple of minutes, Northwest stayed within eight to 10 points. But another long three-pointer by Pitt guard Drew Roberts late in the second half but the brakes on a comeback. Her trey gave the Gorillas a 70-59 lead.

“I hated to give away those layups the last 4 minutes,” Northwest coach Gene Steinmeyer said. “We just could not get a stop. We ran out of gas the last 4 minutes and it left a bad taste in everybody’s mouth.”

In improving to 9-0 overall and 3-0 in the MIAA, Pitt knocked down 10 three-pointers in 20 attempts.

“They might be the best of the three conference teams we’ve played,” Steinmeyer said. “They have a legitimate right to say they are the best in the MIAA right now. I’m not going to say they are, but if they are not, they are pretty close.”

The loss dropped Northwest to 2-7 and 0-3. Once again, Northwest showed it has the potential to win games in the MIAA once it puts all the pieces together.

“We are getting better at staying together as a team,” said freshman Ashleigh Nelson, who finished with six points and five rebounds. “Those last 4 minutes really killed us. If we could have just gotten it down to six points, I think we could have won.”

Senior Abby Henry led the way for the Bearcats, scoring 22 points, and Martin chipped in 11.

In the first half, Northwest gave up the first nine points and that was the worst thing that could happen to the Bearcats. It caused Northwest to play catch-up against an offense that was raining in three-pointers at a 50-percent rate and making easy layups.

Despite the uphill climb, the Bearcats clawed away, inching to 11-6. But that’s when the Gorillas scored consecutive field goals for a 15-6 advantage.

When it appeared Northwest gained some momentum on a high-arching three-pointer by Nelson, the Bearcats saw Pitt come right back with a three-pointer by Roberts.

Nearly every time Northwest made a charge, Pitt put a quick stop to the run with a three-pointer, some of which were close to NBA range.

The halftime stat sheet showed the Gorillas went six for 12 from beyond the arc, but it seemed 12-for-12. The treys helped Pitt take a 41-26 lead into halftime.

One bright spot for Northwest was the play of Henry, who has been hampered this fall with a sore thumb. Henry was four for eight from the field and scored 12 points in the first half.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

Sophomore quarterback Trevor Adams was honored Wednesday not only for helping lead Northwest Missouri State to the NCAA National Quarterfinals, but for his work in the classroom as he was named Second Team Academic All-America by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Adams started the season as the Bearcats backup quarterback, but was thrust into the starting role when senior Blake Christopher went down with multiple injuries. Adams was one of only four players on either the first- or second-teams to hold a 4.00 GPA. He is majoring in biology.

The Odessa, Texas, native started eight games for the Bearcats including three road playoffs starts. The sophomore threw for 2,202 yards and 21 touchdowns on the year. He completed 61 percent of his passes and was ranked all season among the top 10 in the nation in passing efficiency.

The Capital One Division II Academic All-America program is being financially supported by the NCAA Division II national governance structure to assist CoSIDA with handling the awards fulfillment aspects for the 2011-12 D-II Academic All-America teams program.

Four members of the 2011 Capital One Academic All-America Division II Football first team and eight members of the second team represent teams that qualified for the NCAA Division II Football Championship.

— NWMSU Sports Information —