By David Boyce

JOPLIN Mo. – All winning streaks come to an end at some point. It took the 29th MIAA opponent to finally end an amazing run by Northwest Missouri State’s men’s basketball team.

Missouri Southern became the first MIAA team since Jan. 13, 2016 to beat Northwest. The Lions led from start to finish in their 88-71 win over Northwest Saturday afternoon at Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.

“Like Zach Schneider said, we have to come ready to play every day,” said Northwest junior Justin Pitts, who finished with 20 points. “This league is tough. They showed it today.”

It was the first loss of the season for the Bearcats, who dropped to 24-1 overall and 16-1 in the MIAA. Northwest also saw its record-shattering streak of 28 straight MIAA regular-season wins come to an end. The old mark was 19 established in 1931 by Northwest.

“To win 24 games and win 28 games in the league is an unbelievable feat,” Northwest coach Ben McCollum said. “We had an off game as a team and Southern had a good game. Southern played really well.

“The way our kids acted in defeat and congratulated the other team I thought that said a lot about what kind of champions they are. Hopefully we will start our new mission now and a new streak.”

Trailing by six at halftime, Northwest managed to close to three points twice in the opening minutes of the second half. But it simply wasn’t the Bearcats’ day. They had a difficult time sustaining offense.

In addition, Southern was simply playing at a high level offensively, particularly guards CJ Carr, JJ Cratit and Elyjah Clark.

“They made some tough shots. They came out ready and we didn’t and they ended up with a win,” Pitts said.

Every time Northwest made a push, one of those guards came up with a three-pointer or a drive to the basket.

The key point in the second half came with 13:35 left. Northwest trailed 51-45. Cratit scored and after a free throw by Pitts, Cratit made a three-pointer to give Southern a 56-46 lead. The advantage grew even more when Carr nailed a three-pointer and followed that with a driving basket to increase Southern’s lead to 61-46 with 11:02 left.

“We just didn’t come ready to play,” said Schneider, who finished with 15 points. “They played one of their best games of the season. The loss is tough, but we will rebound from it for sure.

“We just got to be ready every day. If you don’t come ready, you will get beat in this league because it is a tough league.”

Northwest simply didn’t have the mojo in the second half to put together a run like it had in the first half.

The Bearcats close out the regular season next week at home, facing Lindenwood on Thursday evening and Lincoln Saturday afternoon.

“Going so long without a loss, this is definitely going to help us in the long run,” Pitts said. “It will teach us we have to come ready every day and can’t take anything for granted. When postseason comes, we have to bring it every day.”

A rare moment struck in the first half for the Bearcats. Northwest went into halftime trailing 38-32.

It could have been worse, much worse. With 9 minutes remaining in the first half, Northwest trailed 30-13. Nothing was going right for the Bearcats and everything was falling for Southern.

In building a 17-point lead, the Lions were shooting 65 percent from the field. Meanwhile, Northwest was missing free throws. At one stretch, the Bearcats missed five straight from the charity strip.

Down 34-21, the Bearcats went on run, scoring the next nine points. The final three came on a three-pointer from senior Schneider to make it 34-30. The Bearcats just couldn’t keep it going.

“It sounds pretty cliché, but hopefully it will wake us up on things we need to improve on,” McCollum said. “And wake me up as well and make sure we are now on a different mission.”

— Northwest Athletics —

By David Boyce

JOPLIN Mo. – The wake-up call for the Northwest Missouri State women’s basketball team sounded in the third quarter Saturday afternoon at Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.

But with their eyes finally open, the Bearcats saw they trailed by 20 points against Missouri Southern. Northwest nearly made it all up before falling 71-70.

“I told them after the game that the second-half team is the team I want to coach,” Northwest coach Buck Scheel said. “The first half I don’t know where that came from. It was really disappointing to have to watch it and sit through it.

“My halftime talk to them was pretty short. There was nothing I was going to do for them to go out and make a change. It was all on their shoulders and they came out and competed and finally gave themselves a chance to win the game.”

It looked really bleak for Northwest when it trailed 41-21 in the third quarter. But at the darkest moment, the Bearcats found sunshine. A three-pointer by senior Jasmin Howe followed by a three-pointer from junior Tanya Meyer closed the gap to 44-29.

By the time the third quarter ended, Northwest trailed 47-35. The Bearcats continued their hot shooting to start the fourth quarter. A three-pointer by Meyer dropped the deficit to single-digits at 47-38.

A couple of minutes later, Meyer made two free throws to make it 51-45 with 7:45 left in the game. The Bearcats were back in the game with plenty of time left.

Unfortunately, Northwest gave up the next four points to fall behind by 10. Over the next four minutes, the deficit fluctuated between eight and 12 points.

“It was good to continue to fight back, but while we were making that run and cutting it down to six, you have to keep going,” Scheel said. “You can’t have breakdowns. You have to keep fighting.”

Trailing 64-52, the Bearcats made one more push that started with a three-pointer by Meyer and a layup by sophomore Arbrie Benson with 2:37 left. Meyer added a free throw 23 seconds later to close the gap to 64-58.

With 50 seconds left, Northwest pulled to within three at 65-62 on a driving layup by Howe.

More intrigue struck with 21 seconds left when junior Caitlin Sudduth hit a three-pointer which reduced the deficit to two at 67-65. Southern, though, hit just enough free throws in the final 19 seconds to secure the win. A three-pointer by Sudduth with .8 seconds left made it a one-point game.

Meyer finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds, Benson had 14 and Sudduth came off the bench and scored 12.

In the fast half, Northwest seemed sluggish for both quarters and went into halftime trailing 31-16.

The Bearcats made three field goals in the first quarter and scored eight points. They did the exact same thing in the second quarter. Northwest wound up going six for 23 from the field for 26.1 percent in the first half.

If Northwest could have shot the ball a little bit better, the Bearcats would have been much closer because Southern only shot 31.3 percent from the field.

“It was disappointing because we put in so much time preparing for games, not just us coaches, but the players,” Scheel said of the first half. “You do the weights, the practices, the scouts and then to go out and not play with effort, toughness or any pride, you are not giving yourself a chance to win or be in the ball game. That was probably the most disappointing part of that.”

— Northwest Athletics —