EDMOND, Okla – The exemplary team basketball that Northwest Missouri State displayed in its 91-70 victory over Central Oklahoma Saturday evening makes it almost irresponsible to single out one player.
But the shooting performance of sophomore Zach Schneider at Hamilton Field House was one for the Northwest record books. He made nine three-pointers and scored 29 points.
“I think it is the most prepared we have been all season,” Schneider said. “Wally (Matt Wallace), Pitts and Conner did a great job of being strong with the ball. Early on, they broke the press and I was sitting alone in the corner.
“They can break any traps. That is pretty much what happened.”
The nine three-pointers by Schneider broke the previous mark of eight, done five times by four players, including Northwest current assistant coach Austin Meyer.
“He (Meyer) was adamant about taking him out,” Northwest head coach Ben McCollum said. “He said, ‘he is playing horrible, let’s get him out of there.’
“Zach hits number nine and Austin has his head down, pouting and crying.”
Obviously, McCollum is joking.
“He didn’t do any of that,” McCollum said. “He did say something afterwards. He looked at the box score and said, ‘ah, he broke it.'”
One thing that made Schneider’s performance truly remarkable was it came against a team that entered the game in sole possession of first place in the MIAA. Also, he was 9-for-10 on three-point shots.
“It was kind of an out-of-body experience,” Schneider said. “It was pretty neat, obviously. I will take it every time.”
The impressive road win by the Bearcats will definitely get attention across the MIAA. Northwest improved to 10-2 overall and 3-1 in the MIAA. Central Oklahoma dropped to 11-3 and 4-1.
“They snapped a long winning streak at Warrensburg,” Schneider said. “We knew it was a big game for us if we want to accomplish one of our preseason goals which is to win conference.”
Schneider’s record-breaking trey came with 4 minutes, 30 seconds left. It gave Northwest a commanding 83-63 lead.
The thing that made Northwest’s victory so stunning was the way it dominated the second half.
Central Oklahoma proved in the first half that it had scorers at every position. Every time Northwest got a little separation, the Bronchos came back.
The second half was much different. The credit goes to the way Northwest shared the basketball and patiently broke the trapping defense applied by the Bronchos.
Schneider quickly pushed the Bearcats lead back to 10 at 48-38 at the start of the second half when he drilled his seventh three-pointer of the game.
“I thought we handled their runs well and handled their pressure well and really engaged in our scouting report and what we were supposed to do,” McCollum said. “We did something a little different on post defense, and we only worked on it for two days and our kids executed it to perfection. It says a lot about our concentration.”
Northwest took a double-digit lead for good at 51-41 on another three-pointer by Schneider.
“It makes it pretty easy,” Wallace said of Schneider shooting. “You know who to look for. It is nice when he is wide open in the corner all night long. It doesn’t make my job hard.”
The Bearcats’ lead reached 20 when Anthony Woods made a basket, giving Northwest a 65-44 lead with 13:45 left in the game.
Central Oklahoma never got closer than 16 the rest of the way.
Another encouraging sign for the Bearcats was the way freshman forward Brett Dougherty finished in the paint. He made five field goals and scored 11 points.
“It was nice for my confidence just because I have been missing some easy ones that I could have finished,” Dougherty said. “More than anything, just for personal confidence, it meant a lot to me.”
Pitts had his normal solid game of 17 points and junior Conner Crooker scored 13 despite foul trouble.
“We are a really unselfish team,” Dougherty said. “A lot of people scored and contributed. It was a lot of fun.”
Throughout the first half, Northwest got plenty of evidence that Central Oklahoma is a very good team.
Each time the Bearcats built a double-digit lead, Central Oklahoma roared back. The best example came with 2 minutes left before half. Schneider nailed his sixth three-pointer of the half and was fouled on the play. After Schneider completed the four-point play, Northwest held a 44-31 lead.
The Bronchos took over and scored six of the last seven points. Northwest held a 45-37 lead at halftime.
Central Oklahoma did a great job of moving the ball around to create open shots. The Bronchos shot 65 percent from the field in the first half.
It was the 11 turnovers that Northwest created that allowed the Bearcats to take 11 more shots than Central Oklahoma in the first half.
Many of the attempts by the Bearcats were three-pointers and they went in. Northwest was 9-for-14 from three-point land in the first half.
The game started with a three-pointer by senior Matt Wallace that gave Northwest a 3-0 lead. Central Oklahoma scored the next seven points for a 7-3 lead.
Schneider got hot. His first three-pointer gave Northwest an 8-7 lead and his second one increased the lead to 13-9. He followed that with a third to make the score 16-11.
Northwest’s first double-digit lead was 29-19, which came on another three-pointer by Schneider. It was a career half for Schneider, who scored 20 points in the first half. He eclipsed his previous career-high in three-pointers of five in the opening 20 minutes.
The Bronchos, though, had a couple of players just as hot from three-point range. Seth Heckart was 3-for-4 from beyond the arc and Garen Wright was 2-for-3.
The lights-out shooting made for an entertaining half of basketball.
— David Boyce, Northwest Athletics —
The Missouri Western men’s basketball team snapped a five-game road losing streak with a gutsy, come from behind, 81-77 overtime win at Nebraska-Kearney Monday night.
