During different stretches, Northwest Missouri State women’s basketball team competed nicely with undefeated Emporia State.

One notable time came late in the second half when the Bearcats trailed by 18 and brought their deficit to a couple of points.

In the early part of the season, Northwest is trying to find its identity and comfort zone under first year coach Michael Smith. Emporia State knows who it is and expects to compete for a MIAA title every season.

That one difference played a part in Northwest’s 68-64 loss to Emporia State Saturday evening at Bearcat Arena.

“We know in the back of our heads they are the No. 3 team and they are suppose to come out and play the way they did, but at the same time, we don’t want to underestimate ourselves,” said junior Ariel Easton, who finished with 17 points. “We came out and gave all the fight we had.”

Emporia State appears to have nine players who are all extremely confident when they take their shots. It is easy to see why Emporia State is now 8-0 and ranked No. 3 in NCAA Division II.

For the Bearcats, who fell to 2-6,they learned the level they have to play to beat a top team in the MIAA. They nearly found it in the final 3 minutes of the game.

Northwest gave much more than a glimpse of what they will become in January, February and March.

“I felt all along this team is making progress every game,” Northwest coach Michael Smith said. “This is the most excited I have been. We had people playing within their abilities tonight. We were being a lot more patient on offense. We had people come off the bench and brought energy and gave us positive minutes.

“Obviously, we were outsized and we knew that going in. I think our heart can go along ways. If anything, this team showed me in the second half that we have a big heart.”

Northwest started well. Easton drained a three-pointer for the first points of the game.

The Hornets immediately tied the game on the first of three, first-half three-pointers by Kelly Moten. Emporia State scored five more points for an 8-3 lead. The Hornets never trailed again.

Emporia State pushed its lead to 19-7. The Hornets scored points inside and outside.

“I felt like in the first half we just didn’t bring the energy that I expected because we had nothing to lose going into this game,” Smith said.

Northwest continued to play hard. The Bearcats closed to 22-16 on a basket by senior Meridde Scott.

The Bearcats just didn’t have enough firepower to keep pace with Emporia State’s high-octane offense. The Hornets went into halftime ahead 36-25.

Early in the second half, Emporia State extended its lead to 42-27. Northwest battled back and closed to 42-33, but the Bearcats started to sputter again on offense.

The dry spell allowed Emporia State to increase its lead 55-37. It was too much of a deficit for the Bearcats to overcome. But they tried and nearly succeeded.

A free throw by freshman Ashley Guenther with 3:10 left brought the Bearcats to within 10 at 65-55. It ignited an impressive late run by the Bearcats.

Tember Schechinger added two free throws 30 seconds later and then she made a basket, which pulled the Bearcats to within six at 65-59 with 1:16 left.

The most impressive part of the run came next when Northwest grabbed two offensive rebounds before Easton got a put-basket to make it 65-61 with 45 seconds left.

Forty-three seconds later, junior Ashleigh Nelson sank three free throws, pulling the Bearcats to within two at 66-64 with 1.2 seconds left.

“We are not about moral victories. We have to get over the hump and start getting the wins,” said Nelson, who finished with 17 points. “Tonight we showed we can do it and can beat anybody in this league if we just come together as one and play with a passion as we did when we were down by such a big deficit.”

— Northwest Sports Information —

On Tuesday afternoon, Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball coach Ben McCollum insisted his team was playing well in spite of two losses over the weekend.

Two days later, the Bearcats proved McCollum has a solid grasp of his team.Northwest scored the first 10 points and never trailed in its 75-59 victoryover Pittsburg State Thursday evening at Bearcat Arena.

“We started to become the prey instead of the predator,” McCollum said. “When you become like that, you can get up early and get a lead, but you are never going to close because you are not in an attacking mode.

“I thought tonight, at the 7 or 8 minute mark, we started to slow it down. I told our players let’s run, let’s go and play fast and let’s keep attacking. That’s the mentality I want them to have throughout the rest of the season.”

The win pushed Northwest’s record back over .500 at 5-4. More importantly, the Bearcats won their MIAA opener.

The start could not have gone better. The Bearcats mixed a couple of three-pointers with a few baskets inside. Dillon Starzl was nearly unstoppable inside and point guard DeShaun Cooper created havoc with his quickness.

“We got the ball inside right off the bat,” said Grant Cozad, who finished with 12 points, making four of six from the field. “Once we get our inside-out game going, our shooters start to get going and everything starts clicking.”

Midway through the first half, Northwest still maintained a solid hold of the lead when Conner Crooker hit a three-pointer, giving the Bearcats a 27-14 lead.

It was definitely Crooker’s night. He finished with a career-high 27 points.

“Conner’s potential is there,” Cozad said. “He works hard. When he has the ball, something good is going to come out of a drive or a shot. He is a great passer inside.”

Pittsburg fought back and closed to 31-26. The Gorillas never got closer in the first half. Northwest went into halftime ahead 38-30.

“The key was we kept running the ball and we were not afraid to shoot it,” Crooker said. “The last couple of games we were afraid to score and kind of tried to keep the lead. This time we were trying to build a lead and keep attacking.”

The second half started nearly as well as the first 20 minutes for the Bearcats. Starzl scored the first basket on a power move in the paint. Crooker followed that up with a three-pointer that increased Northwest’s advantage to 43-30.

It got even better for the Bearcats midway through the second half. One nice play came when Crooker drove to the basket and slipped a pass inside to Cozad who finished to make it 51-39.

A minute later, Bryston Williams drove and passed the ball inside and once again Cozad finished. The basket gave Northwest a 55-39 lead.

Unlike the previous two games when Northwest blew double-digit leads and lost to Drury and Truman State, the Bearcats held firm control of their advantage throughout the second half.

“The last two games we gave up those runs so we tried to handle that adversity and once they hit us with that run, let’s go back at them with another run,” Cozad said.

“It was definitely a learning weekend for us, handling other teams’ runs. We are looking to improve off this game. We have Emporia State next.”

With 4:45 left, Northwest built a 63-46 lead on an interior pass from Cozad to Kyle Schlake.

The Gorillas made a very mild run and closed to 63-53. But Northwest made them pay when they went to a full-court press. The Bearcats quickly broke it and the end result was a dunk by Starzl.

Two free throws by Crooked pushed Northwest’s lead to 67-53 with 3 minutes left.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

Down by nine points late in the second half, Northwest Missouri State women’s basketball team refused to concede to Pittsburg State.

The Bearcats clawed their way back and had a chance to tie or win with the lastpossession. Unfortunately, Northwest failed to get off a good shot on two opportunities.

So what could have been a thrilling, come-from-victory turned into tough 57-55loss for Northwest Thursday evening at Bearcat Arena in the MIAA opener forboth teams.

“We can’t hang our heads,” Northwest coach Michael Smith said. “We have a one-day prep before we have Emporia State coming to town, playing on our home floor. We need to represent our home floor with the best of our abilities.”

All indications point to the Bearcats learning  from this loss. In fact, they showed growth during the game. In the first half, they had 12 turnovers and never went to the free throw line.

“We made some turnovers in the first half that kind of put us in a bind,” Smith said. “We did a much better job in the second half of handling the basketball, but we can’t be a team that plays from behind. That will wear on you more mentally than physically, especially in a tough conference season we have ahead of us.”

Northwest reduced the turnovers to just three in the second half and made 12 of 14 from the line.

One of those misses came from junior Ashleigh Nelson with 24 seconds remaining that could have tied the game at 56-56.

But it was Nelson’s shooting from the field that gave Northwest an opportunity to win.  She led all scorers with 18 points.

With a little under 7 minutes left, it looked very bleak for Northwest. The Bearcats trailed 52-43. At that point, Northwest picked up its defense and started creating a few turnovers.

“We all have the fight within ourselves to do it, but like coach said, we can’t play from behind,” Nelson said. “We have to be the team who is ahead and act like we are behind and play with the passion and energy as if we are down.”

Over the next 4 minutes, the Bearcats chipped away at its deficit and closed to 55-54 with 2:07 left. They just couldn’t come up with that one play to put them over the top.

“It was a little frustrating finding someone to step up and make a play for us to get us that lead,” Nelson said.

Both Smith and Nelson agreed that the game was really lost in the first half.

Despite going into halftime tied 28-28, Northwest put together one stretch in the latter part of the first half that gave a glimpse of what it can do when everything is in sync.

The Bearcats trailed 14-12 when they started reducing the enforced turnovers, played tough defense and had great ball movement.

A basket by Ariel Easton tied the game and Nelson gave the Bearcats their first lead since 3-2 when she made a bucket to make it 16-14 with 8:15 remaining in the first half.

After Pittsburg tied the game at 16-16, the Bearcats scored the next seven points for a 23-16 lead. Three different players scored during the run.

The Bearcats were not able to sustain that level of play and only scored five points in the final 6 minutes in the first half.

“If we could have stretched our lead, it would have been huge for us to go into the second half with a lead,” Nelson said.

— NWMSU Sports Information —