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Category: Sports

Kansas State women fall at home to Northern Iowa

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MANHATTAN, Kansas – Trailing by 12 early in the third quarter, Kansas State rallied to take a two-point fourth quarter lead but perimeter shooting by Northern Iowa sent the Wildcats to a 72-71 defeat on Thursday night at Bramlage Coliseum.

Northern Iowa (4-7) finished the night 16-of-31 (.516) from beyond the arc, just one made 3-point field goal from tying the opponent record against K-State of 17 set by South Dakota on Nov. 19, 2015. K-State was just 4-of-17 (.235) from the 3-point line, but registered a 17-of-23 (.739) effort from the foul line to close the margin.

Kansas State (8-3) was led by the duo of junior guard Kayla Goth and sophomore forward Peyton Williams with a combined 47 points. Goth registered a career-high 26 points while also handing out five assists, pulling in four rebounds and adding two blocks and two steals. This was the fourth career game of 20 or more points for Goth including her second this season. She has also dished out five or more assists in nine games this season.

Williams also notched her second game of 20 or more points this season, as she tallied 21 points, six rebounds, two steals and a block. The product of Topeka, Kansas, has 16 career games with five or more rebounds, including eight this season.

The Panthers had three players in double figures led by Kennedy Kirkpatrick with 24 points, Mikaela Morgan with 18 points and Ellie Howell with 11 points. UNI’s bench outscored the K-State bench, 51-12.

The teams exchanged the lead four times in the opening quarter, as Northern Iowa held a 16-14 lead after the first. K-State was paced by Goth with five points and freshman center Ashley Ray, who made her first career start on Thursday, with four points.

Northern Iowa built an eight-point lead, 28-20, with a 12-4 run in the opening four and a half minutes of the second quarter. K-State ended its dry spell with a 9-0 run to take a 29-28 lead with 3:08 to play and force a Panthers’ timeout.

Goth scored K-State’s final 11 points of the first half, but Northern Iowa would hold a 40-35 lead at halftime. The Wildcats shot 12-of-26 from the field in the first half, but the Panthers were 14-of-31 including a 9-of-19 effort from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.

After Northern Iowa took its largest lead of the night, 49-37, with 6:39 of the third quarter, Kansas State proceeded to end the third stanza on a 15-2 run and take a 52-51 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Williams scored eight points during the rally, including a pair of 3-point plays. K-State held the Panthers without a field goal for the final 6:38 of the quarter.

In the fourth quarter, K-State came back from a five-point deficit, 60-55, with 6:16 remaining to go in front by two, 62-60, following a transition layup from Kaylee Page to force a UNI timeout with 4:25 to play in regulation.

After the timeout, the Panthers scored nine quick points to go back in front by five, 69-64, with 2:11 left. Kirkpatrick was responsible for seven of the nine points during the rally including her sixth and seventh 3-pointers of the night.

K-State mounted a late comeback, as Williams made a layup with 27 seconds following a pair of missed free throws by the Panthers. After UNI made two free throws for a 71-66 lead with 16 seconds left, Karyla Middlebrook drove the length of the floor to finish a layup with 11 seconds to bring K-State to within three, 71-68. Middlebrook finished with eight points and three assists in 20 minutes off the bench.

Northern Iowa then made just one of two free throws and K-State raced up the floor after the second attempt missed. Goth drained her third 3-pointer of the night with four seconds left. The Panthers attempted to inbound the ball following the make, but were tied up by Shaelyn Martin on the wing with the possession arrow favoring K-State with just 8 tenths of a second left.

Page inbounded the ball under K-State’s own basket and lobbed a pass to Goth in the lane. On Goth’s field goal attempt with a tenth of a second left, she was fouled. Both free throw attempts were long to send K-State to its first home loss of the 2017-18 season.

K-State finished the night shooting 41.0 percent overall (25-of-61) which included a 32-10 advantage in points in the paint. UNI tallied a 41.5 percent effort (22-of-53). UNI registered an assist on all 22 made field goals, while K-State handed out 11.

K-State held a 23-9 lead in points off turnovers, as the Wildcats forced the Panthers into 16 turnovers compared to just eight by K-State.

Following a break for the holidays, Kansas State begins Big 12 action on Thursday, December 28, as the Wildcats host (6/6) Baylor at 7 p.m. The Wildcats and Lady Bears will meet in the league season opener for the third time in the last five years, as the teams opened the 2013-14 Big 12 season in Manhattan and the 2016-17 season in Waco.

— K-State Athletics —

Missouri Western hires Dave Brown as Offensive Coordinator

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ST. JOSEPH – Missouri Western head football coach Matt Williamson has announced the hiring of Dave Brown as offensive coordinator.

Brown comes to MWSU after serving as passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Colorado State-Pueblo the past two seasons.

“Dave is a winner and brings diverse experience at several levels to Missouri Western,” Williamson said. “He coached one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in college football history and has been a part of championship football everywhere he’s been including here in the MIAA.”

In two seasons at CSU-Pueblo, Brown was part of two RMAC Co-Championships along with seeing the ThunderWolves offense toward the top of the conference. His quarterbacks completed better than 59 percent of their passes, threw for nearly 4,500 yards and 37 touchdowns.

Prior to his two years at CSU-Pueblo, Brown was hand-picked by John L. Smith to be the offensive coordinator at Fort Lewis College. At Fort Lewis, Brrown helped the team to its best season in eight years with an offense that ranked second in the RMAC. Brown came to Fort Lewis after six years at Nevada where he helped Colin Kaepernick become the only player in NCAA history to throw for 10,000 yards and rush for 4,000 in his career. Brown was instrumental in the implementation and development of the pistol offense at Nevada and later installed the same offense at Portland State.

Brown’s coaching career began at his alma mater, Central Missouri, in 2001. While at UCM, Brown coached the school’s top-two career rushers and scorers. During his time in Warrensburg, the Mules posted a 43-13 record, won the MIAA and appeared in the NCAA DII playoffs.

Brown also coached one season at Portland State, helping the Vikings lead the Big Sky Conference in rushing and improving their offensive output by more than 95 yards per game.

Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education at Central Missouri and master’s degrees from UCM and Nevada. He replaces Chet Pobolish who became head coach at Southwestern Oklahoma State in November. Brown’s father, Paul, is a longtime high school coach in the Kansas City area with head coaching stints at Turner, Bishop Miege and Baeshor-Linwood. In 2016, Paul Brown was inducted into the Greater Kansas City Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

— MWSU Athletics —

Gill, Palmer Jr. lead Nebraska past UTSA 104-94

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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Anton Gill was a game time decision for Nebraska on Wednesday night and the Cornhuskers were thrilled he decided to play.

The fifth-year senior scored a career-high 21 points, including a 3-pointer and three free throws in a late 9-0 run, to help Nebraska beat UT San Antonio 104-94.

“He had a migraine in the pre-game, wasn’t even able to go through pregame, kind of a question mark going through warmups,” said Nebraska coach Tim Miles. “Finally at game time, he was `I’m going to give it the old try.’ You look at 21 points later, that worked out pretty good. We needed him tonight.”

Gill didn’t mention the migraine after the game. But acknowledged he was sluggish early, trying to shake off the disappointment of a 73-72 loss to No. 13 Kansas Saturday.

“Me, personally, I took that loss pretty hard,” he said. “At the same, they (UTSA) are a good team. They came in here thinking they were going to win. We took their best shot; we took their punches. We had some stretches where we didn’t play well. But at the end of the day, we got the win.”

Nebraska (8-5) scored more than 100 for the first time since beating North Carolina A&T 107-57 on Dec. 19, 2005. The 198 total points is the most ever scored at Pinnacle Bank Arena, which opened for the 2013-2014 season.

The Cornhuskers led by as many as 10 points in both halves only to see the Roadrunners come back to tie the score repeatedly in the second half.

UTSA (7-6), which trailed by seven at intermission, hit 10 of its first 12 shots of the second half, knotting the score at 70 on Nick Allen’s dunk with 11:27 remaining. Nebraska opened up a five point lead at 81-76 on Isaiah Roby’s free throws with 8:06 remaining but saw that advantage eliminated by a Jhivvan Jackson 3-pointer followed by a driving layup.

UTSA tied the score five times in the second half but never took the lead — “I think it proves prayers do work,” Miles quipped.

Gill hit a 3 pointer with 4 minutes left, then was fouled shooting a 3 pointer 40 seconds later and sank all three free throws. A James Palmer, Jr. layup and free throw put Nebraska up 95-86 with 1:54 left.

Nebraska’s strings of defensive stops, including a pair of blocked shots in the final four minutes, were the key to the game according to UTSA coach Steve Henson.

“I’ve watched some of their games, they’ve done that to other people,” Henson said. “Boston College was a close game going into the last few minutes they just shut them out down the stretch. Kansas the other night, close ball game, shut them out until the very last shot pretty much. So we knew we had the capability of screeching us to a halt.”

The Huskers hit 37-of-50 free throws in the game that saw USTA whistled for 31 fouls. Palmer, who scored a career high 25 points, was 13 for 17 from the line. The Roadrunner were 9 of 10 from the free-throw line. Nebraska was called for 12 fouls.

Nebraska intended to get to the line Wednesday after shooting just 10 free throws in each of the last two games.

“We talked about it yesterday,” said Thomas Allen, who hit 3 of 4 free throws. “Just get to the rim. They don’t really have a shot blocker, so you just attack the paint. Make layups or get fouled. Tonight, we struggled from the free throw line a little bit. But it will get better.

Nebraska used a 10-0 mid-first half run to take a 27-17 lead at the 8:22 mark and led 49-42 at half.

Jackson led UTSA with 26 points, Deon Lyle scored 15 and Allen had 12 points. Keaton Wallace and Byron Frohnen had 10 points each.

Evan Taylor had 16, Glynn Watson Jr. had 13 points and Roby scored 10 points for Nebraska.

QUOTABLE

Miles on UTSA’s offense: “We kept telling our players this team has similar offensive number as the Michigan States, Creightons, Kansas. They just don’t look like it. One of our guys says afterward to coach (Jim) Molinari, `I didn’t think they were like that.’ Yeah, they are like that.”

BIG PICTURE

Nebraska

It was the fourth consecutive game in which Nebraska played a team in the top-30 nationally in scoring offense. Only UTSA, ranked 20th at 86.6 points per game, scored more than 80 against the Huskers.

UTSA

A UTSA freshman has been named Conference USA Freshman of the Week in four of the season’s first six weeks. Wallace has earned the honor three times and Jackson once.

UP NEXT

Nebraska hosts Delaware State Friday, the third game in a four-game non-conference December home stand for the Huskers.

UTSA travels to Rice on Dec. 28 for its Conference USA opener.

— Associated Press —

Northwest’s Jones a finalist for Cliff Harris Award

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Northwest Missouri State University’s Marcus Jones has been listed as a finalist for the Little Rock Touchdown Club and Wright, Lindsey & Jennings LLP’s fifth annual Cliff Harris Award.

This award is presented to the nation’s top small college defensive player representing almost 500 colleges and universities from NCAA Division II, Division III and NAIA colleges. A prestigious selection committee made up of former college and pro football greats will select the winner. In addition to the Cliff Harris Award overall winner, the top vote getter from each division will be announced. Jones is one of 30 NCAA Division II finalists.

As a senior, Jones tied a career-high with 15 passes defended in 2017, leading one of the nation’s top ranked defenses. Earlier this fall, he was named a first team AFCA All-America performer and earned first team All-MIAA honors.

In 12 games this season at corner back, Jones recorded 33 tackles and 5.5 tackles for loss. He had one forced fumble and also recorded an interception. The Bearcat defense finished the season ranked first in points allowed (9.3), total defense (212.8 ypg) and third down conversion percentage defense (19.9 percent).

The Cliff Harris Award winner will be announced on December 23 and honored at the Little Rock Touchdown Club’s annual awards banquet on January 11, 2018.

— Northwest Athletics —

Chiefs CB Marcus Peters named AFC Defensive Player of the Week

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Kansas City Chiefs’ cornerback Marcus Peters was named the AFC Defensive Player of the Week, the NFL announced on Wednesday.

Peters tallied three tackles, two interceptions, a forced fumble and three passes defensed in Kansas City’s win over the Los Angeles Chargers last Saturday night, marking just the eighth time since 2010 that a player has picked off multiple passes and forced a fumble in a single game.

It was Peters’ fourth-career game with multiple interceptions, and his 19 picks since 2015 lead the NFL.

In fact, Peters ranks behind only Ed Reed (21) and Richard Sherman (20) in interceptions through a player’s first three career seasons over the last 25 years.

Peters has now won the award three times, also doing so in each of the past two seasons. He’s just the third player in franchise history to be recognized in three straight years, joining linebackers Derrick Thomas and Derrick Johnson.

— Chiefs Press Release —

Griffons get an exhibition win over Livin’ the Dream

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ST. JOSEPH – Griffon men’s basketball (3-8) won its final exhibition game of the season Tuesday night 96-80 against Livin’ The Dream. It is the last home game for Missouri Western until January 11.

Livin’ The Dream opened the game on a 5-0 run for an early lead. Later in the first half, LTD used a 6-0 run to take a 12-point lead with 13:09 left in the first half. Missouri Western countered the run with 11 straight points to cut the lead to one. An 8-0 run to close the half gave MWSU the lead at halftime and they would never trail again.

NOTABLES
– MWSU won its fourth straight game against Livin’ The Dream

– The Griffons used a 19-0 run to extend its lead to 16 with 16:42 left in the second half

– Missouri Western outscored Livin’ The Dream 36-7 over a 14:20 minute span in the game

– MWSU overcame a 12-point deficit in the first half

– Missouri Western had six players score in double-digits

– Alex Martin led the Griffons with 19 points

UP NEXT
Missouri Western plays its next game on January 3 at Pittsburg State with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m.

— MWSU Athletics —

No. 1 Bearcats roll to 70-56 victory over No. 4 Lincoln Memorial

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By David Boyce – Northwest Athletics

OWENSBORO, Ky. – In Eastern Kentucky, on a neutral court, the Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team showed it remains the king of Division II basketball.

The Bearcats, the defending national champions and No. 1-ranked team in the NABC coaches top 25, handed No. 4 Lincoln Memorial its first loss of the season Tuesday evening at Kentucky Wesleyan’s Owensboro Sportcenter.

An impressive display of offense and defense in the first eight minutes of the second half broke open a close game and propelled Northwest to a 70-56 victory. The Bearcats go into the Christmas break with an 11-0 record. Lincoln Memorial dropped to 11-1.

“Like I said before the game, this was really going to test us,” said Northwest senior Chris-Ebou Ndow, who finished with 24 points and 15 rebounds. “It was the biggest test we have had so far. Defensively, we showed we can play with anybody. We can defensively get after anybody. That is a good feeling to have going into Christmas.”

The nonconference game was a rematch of last year’s national semifinals that Northwest won 79-67.

The way the first half ended, it definitely looked like Tuesday’s game was going to be much closer.

Ndow had another idea. He wasted little time helping Northwest increase a four-point halftime lead. He opened the second half with a three-pointer, increasing the Bearcats lead to 35-28.

“We knew we ended the first half really bad and that is not what we wanted to do against a team like that,” Ndow said. “We knew they could get on a run at any time. The fact we let them get on a run at the end of the first was not good.

“Coming out in the second half, we knew we had to turn it up. It was good for me to make some threes and get us going.”

After Lincoln Memorial scored, the Bearcats went on an impressive 12-0 run that started with a three-pointer from senior Justin Pitts that bounced high off the rim, hit the backboard and fell through.

Some luck was definitely on the Bearcats’ side. It was fitting they were wearing their all green jerseys.

“For us, other than Ryan Hawkins bank shot and that shot by Pitts, I think we weren’t too lucky because the rims were tight,” Ndow said.

Ndow followed Pitts’ trey with another three-pointer. Senior Brett Dougherty did a nice fake in the paint and banked in a layup for two more points.

“I just tried to be aggressive,” said Dougherty, who finished with 14 points on seven of 14 shooting. “They weren’t doubling me. We have shooters around me so I have to take advantage of it. That was what I tried to do.”

Ndow followed with a basket in the paint that caused the Railsplitters to call timeout. The run ended with two free throws by Ndow that made it 47-30 with 15 minutes left.

Lincoln Memorial stopped the run with a basket and then the Bearcats revved it back up, scoring 12 straight points, making it 59-32. The banked-in three-pointer by Hawkins completed the 27-4 run to start the second half.

“I thought in the first half we had a chance to really put our foot on their throats and pull away,” Northwest coach Ben McCollum said. “I thought we made some mistakes with some busted coverage and some turnovers and they made a run on us.

“In the second half, we buckled down, especially coming out of the gate. Chris hit some big shots and had 15 rebounds. He is a big-game player. You saw that tonight.”

Everything went well for Northwest. Pitts didn’t shoot the ball well, but his five assists put him No. 1 on the school’s career assist list with 494. The previous record was 492 by Kelvin Parker.

One hot stretch by Northwest in the first half gave the Bearcats a 13-point lead and enough of a cushion to take a 32-28 lead into halftime.

Northwest shot a cool 38 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes but created enough turnovers to lead most of the half.

Lincoln Memorial took its first lead at 12-11 on two free throws by senior Dorian Pinson. The Railsplitters other lead was 14-13 on a massive dunk by senior Emanuel Terry.

“It is really tough to stop their runs,” Ndow said. “They are a high-scoring team and can get hot anytime. When they got that dunk and got hyped, we knew they could have made a big run. We had to stop the bleeding as soon as possible.”

The dunk didn’t rattle the Bearcats. They regained the lead for good for on two free throws by Ndow.

Those two free throws sparked a 10-0 run that gave Northwest a 23-14 lead with 5:09 remaining in the first half. Northwest junior Joey Witthus scored a couple of baskets during the run.

“It makes it really good for us when Joey hits baskets in the post and that gives you Brett and Joey,” McCollum said. “It gives us a more multi-facet offense.”

After Lincoln Memorial scored, Northwest answered with a three-pointer from Witthus and another three-pointer from Ndow, making it 29-16.

Trailing by 13, the Railsplitters got hot behind the shooting of sophomore Cornelius Taylor. He drilled two straight long three-pointers followed by a two-point field goal to pull Lincoln Memorial to within five at 29-24.

Lincoln Memorial actually shot much better than the Bearcats, hitting 12 of 21 shots for 57 percent. But the Railsplitters attempted 11 fewer shots.

“This win was huge,” Dougherty said. “A few years ago, we kind of went to Christmas too early, which is easy to do if you start looking ahead to it. A big game like this right before Christmas was nice. Defensively, we believe we can bring a lot to the table. I think we showed that tonight.”

— Northwest Athletics —

Missouri Western women fall to Truman State for first home loss

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ST. JOSEPH – For just the fourth time in the last three seasons, the Missouri Western women’s basketball team (9-3) lost back-to-back games, falling 77-68 to Truman State (7-2), Tuesday night in the MWSU Fieldhouse.

A 6-2 MWSU spurt late in the fourth quarter pulled the Griffons within four (72-68) with one minute to go in the game. Truman State scored the next seven points of the game, three of those points coming on free throws to ice the Griffons’ first consecutive losses involving a non-conference opponent since March, 2016.

NOTABLES
– The loss was the Griffons’ first this season in the MWSU Fieldhouse (7-1)

– Cera Ledbetter finished with her first double-double as a Griffon with 12 points and 10 rebounds. It was Ledbetter’s third consecutive double-digit scoring effort

– KeShara Scott led the Griffons with 12 rebounds and is averaging 9.8 per game over the last four games

– Savannah Lentz tied a career high with five three-pointers (5-12) in the game

– Four Griffons scored in double-figures (Lent-16, Brittany Atkins-16, Melia Richardson-13 and Ledbetter)

– Missouri Western out-rebounded Truman State 37-33 and shot close to 44 percent from the field

– The Griffons tied a season-high with six blocks in the game

– Truman State shot better than 47 percent from the field and scored 42 of its points in the paint

UP NEXT
Missouri Western plays its last non-conference game of the season Dec. 30 when the Griffons host Quincy.

— MWSU Athletics —

Mizzou holds off Stephen F. Austin for 82-81 win

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COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Kassius Robertson scored 23 points with a steal in the closing seconds, Jordan Barnett had 22 points and Missouri hung on to defeat Stephen F. Austin 82-81 on Tuesday night for its fifth-straight win.

It was Robertson who missed two free throw with 13.5 seconds to play before his hustle led to a turnover with 2.7 seconds left.

Aaron Augustin hit a 3-pointer with 48 seconds left to pull the Lumberjacks with 81-78 and after Johntay Porter made 1 of 2 from the line with 24 to go, Kevon Harris hit another three at 18 seconds to make it a one-point game.

Missouri (10-2) started out efficient, making 10 of its first 11 shots, six of them 3-pointers, including the last four. But SFA stayed close, making 9 of 18, and only trailed 28-21 after Barnett’s 3-pointer at the 9:23 mark.

The Tigers finished the first half making 8 of 12 3-pointers and 14 of 21 overall — plus 12 of 13 free throws. Still, they only led 48-40.

The Lumberjacks scored eight straight points, the last four by Shannon Bogues and turned that into a 18-6 run, closing to 66-65 on a free throws by Ty Holyfield with 5:56 to play. Leon Gilmore III made 1 of 2 free throws to tie the game at 70.

Robertson led Missouri with 23 points, 15 of those points from 3-pointers. Jordan Barnett followed with 22 points.

Kevon Harris scored 19 points and Holyfield added 18 to lead Stephen F. Austin (10-2), which was coming off an 83-82 win at LSU on Saturday.

BIG PICTURE

Stephen F. Austin: The Lumberjacks stifling defense sets up well for a conference title run, and maybe a tournament appearance. They forced 21 Missouri turnovers with the team that is second in the nation in steals getting 11.

Missouri: The Tigers continue to show they can compete without their star freshman, Michael Porter Jr., who is out with a back injury. Tuesday’s game was no doubt a test for Missouri, and being able to learn from and overcome the Lumberjacks’ stifling defense will help the Tigers later down the road.

UP NEXT

Stephen F. Austin heads back home to face Arlington Baptist in its last non-conference game on Thursday.

Missouri travels to St. Louis to face Illinois on Saturday. It’ll be the Tigers last non-conference game before beginning SEC play at South Carolina on Jan. 3.

— Associated Press —

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