Northwest Women Down Western 91-82, but Washburn Keeps Pace

Northwest Missouri State's women continued to bear a charmed life as they held off a furious comeback from archrival Missouri Western and stay in the driver's seat of the MIAA title race. Washburn kept pace with a road win at Southwest Baptist and a home win against Truman State in a makeup game. That brought them to within one game of Northwest in the conference standings. The magic number for Northwest Missouri State is now 4, since there are four more games left in the conference season -- any combination of Northwest wins and Washburn losses totaling four will give Northwest its first MIAA title since 1983-1984. The win did nothing to hurt Northwest's #22 ranking or its third place ranking in the South Central Regionals. Climbing up two more spots in the Regionals could mean that Northwest would host a regional for the first time ever for either the men or the women.

Western's only lead of the game was a 3-0 lead off a Jessica Koch layup. Abby Henry found Gabby Curtis open from downtown and Kyla Roehrig and Gentry Dietz hit free throws to extend it out to 6-2. Gentry then hit Kyla Roehrig on the high-low to make it 8-2. Following a rejection of Kallie Schoonover by Dietz, Northwest took advantage as Kyla Roehrig kicked it out to Abby Henry after an inbounds play. Henry struck again following a steal in the post as Northwest went out to a 12-2 left at the 16:25 mark.

Lauren Nolke, who had 24 points for the night, did all she could to get her team back in the game as she scored off a fast break and added a 3-pointer as Western was able to stay within eight for a while. But then Kyla Roehrig kicked it out to Abby Henry for a buzzer-beating shot to make it 21-11 to spark another run. Kyla got a putback and then Abby Henry got a steal and found Shelly Martin open for the layup. Gabby Curtis then got a steal and made a deadly crossover move against Alicia Bell for a layup and then Gentry Dietz hit a free throw to make it 28-11.

But Northwest did not have an answer defensively for Nolke, who got a pullup for Western to make it 28-13. Ashley Thayer hit a 3-pointer, but then Nolke got a putback and then hit a 3-pointer from the wing to close to within 31-18. Gabby Curtis got behind the Western defense for a layup and then Gentry Dietz got a defensive board and Northwest got a quick outlet to Gabby Curtis to Abby Henry to Ashley Thayer, who finished the break to put Northwest up 38-20. But the Griffons would not go away thanks to their scorching hot 3-point shooting as Nolke hit two more 3-pointers and Colleen Schnider added one to keep it at 44-29 with 3:49 left. But Northwest closed the half strongly as Kyla Roehrig scored the last 11 points of the half, including an array of inside shots and putbacks including one at the buzzer to put Northwest up 53-35. Lauren Nolke hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring for Western, but Shelly Martin hit Gabby Curtis on the top of the key and then Curtis hit two free throws to give Northwest its largest lead of 58-38 with 17:53 left.

But then Western showed its explosiveness on offense as they exploited a mismatch as Gentry Dietz was trying to guard the much quicker Jessica Koch; Jessica was able to go to the line for a pair of free throws, score off a drive, and then convert a 3-point play for a personal 7-0 run that made it 58-45. Missouri Western put on a press that bothered Northwest and the Bearcats were not adjusting on offense, trying to force passes into Kyla that were not there as Western was doing a much better job of helping out on defense.

Curtis hit a 3-pointer with 14:15 left off a pass from Abby Henry, but Western kept right on coming, getting a pullup from Kallie Schoonover to make it 61-51. Koch went straight down the middle to get it down under double digits at 61-53. Northwest was struggling with their shots as they missed six straight free throws to fuel the Western rally. Gabby Curtis scored from the right wing, Gentry Dietz added a putback, and then Abby Henry threw a long outlet to Gabby to make it 67-53, but then Western started isolating Alicia Bell on Gabby Curtis and Curtis picked up her third and fourth fouls trying to guard her and sat out as Bell scored off a drive and a 3-point play after a putback during an 11-0 Western run. Alex Noble, normally a role player, scored off a fast break and a pair of steals for Western to close it to within 67-64.

Western got a stop and a chance to take the lead, but Shelly Martin got a steal as she stripped Bell of the ball and then Gentry Dietz came through in the clutch as she got a badly needed putback for Northwest. Lauren Nolke, who had been on fire all night from downtown, finally missed one that would have cut it to two and Shelly Martin converted a 3-point play off a pass from Abby Henry to make it 72-64. Western who lost the turnover battle to Northwest 20-12, made some critical turnovers down the stretch that stopped them from coming back; they would not make it a one possession game again.

The teams continued to trade buckets as the lead stayed between six and eight until the 2:06 mark when Gentry Dietz cleaned up following Shelly Martin's second steal in the last few minutes to make it 80-70 with 2:06 left. Western answered with a final flurry as 3-pointers from Kallie Schoonover and Lauren Nolke closed Western to within 83-78 with 48 seconds left. Bell was driving on Curtis, who had her fourth foul, at will and either kicking it out to the shooter or getting the layup. But finally, with Northwest up 87-80 with 37 seconds left, Northwest put Monai Douglass on Bell and did a much better job helping out and Western threw it away and Northwest made their last eight free throws of the game to get the win.