Northwest Missouri State's men are off to a 5-0 start following a 2-0 performance at the Bearcat Classic in Maryville last weekend. The Bearcats beat Upper Iowa 59-52 in Saturday's game and Southwest Minnesota State 74-61 in Sunday's matchup.
The Bearcats are the defending MIAA champion and are coming off a successful season and a trip to the national tournament. But they are starting without DeShaun Cooper, their leading scorer from last year, who is out with tendinitis. But in his absence, everyone else is stepping up and filling the void and Northwest is continuing to win games. When he returns, Northwest will be one of the best ballhandling teams in the area and will be one of the tallest as well, with three of their players listed at 6'8" or taller.
The Bearcats seem to have found a go-to player in his absence, with DeAngelo Hailey stepping up and scoring big in the Bearcat Classic. Matt Wallace has emerged as a steady point guard, getting 10 assists and two turnovers against constant pressure by Southwest in the second game. Alex Sullivan is a constant threat to score from deep, getting as many as 28 points in a game this year while all three of their 6'8"+ post players contributing in scoring down low.
Against Upper Iowa, the focus was to limit their backdoor looks and to value the basketball on every possession against a well-coached team that did not make very many mistakes. Northwest succeeded in both counts, only surrendering the ball seven times against the Peacocks. They got a lot of good looks in transition in building up a 10-3 lead right off the bat. Northern Iowa brought their defensive stopper, Jake Shonka, a tough defender and intimidator who took up a lot of room underneath. That, plus some backdoor looks, brought the Peacocks back to within one at one point; offensively, Shonka was altering shots in the paint. Finally, Grant Cozad came off the bench to give Northwest a spark, getting four quick points to give the Bearcats some badly needed cushion. Northwest went into the locker up 25-19.
Given the low-scoring nature of the contest, every possession was important for both teams and the winner would be the one that did the best job valuing the basketball. Matt Wallace's half-court lob to Dillon Starzl with 18:16 left in the half made it 30-21, a lead that Northwest would maintain until halfway through the second half.
Northwest then got sloppy on a couple of possessions as Upper Iowa took advantage and closed to within four and they allowed Upper Iowa's best driver, Joey Woods, to get loose underneath a couple of times. But then DeAngelo Haley came in and started hitting for Northwest a couple of times, pushing their lead back to 48-39. But then Upper Iowa hit a 3-pointer and a pair of Haley looks went in and out as the Peacocks closed back to within 50-46. But then a Peacock 3-pointer went in and ont that would have cut it to one and St. Joseph Lafayette product Bryson Williams, who had been missing all night, flipped one up that went in to make it 52-46; that play turned out to be a momentum killer for Upper Iowa. Haley contributed a pair of buckets and Northwest was able to get some critical offensive boards down the stretch to extend some possessions.
For Northwest, Haley led with 13 points and Starzl added 12. They had eight players in the scoring column for the night. Alex Sullivan added eight and Grant Cozad had seven off the bench.
The Bearcats followed the same formula in their 74-62 win over Southwest Minnesota State. They jumped out to an early lead and then successfully weathered all of the Mustang's comeback attempts and got a ton of critical offensive boards down the stretch to run out the clock and get the win.
This time, Northwest landed 9 players in the scoring column. Haley once again led with 20 points, followed by Dillon Starzl with 16 and Alex Sullivan with 14. Northwest jumped out to a 6-2 lead, prompting Southwest to call timeout and switch to a zone. But Northwest hit a 3-pointer and then they pushed it to a 19-8 lead at the 11:30 mark. But then Northwest started to get sloppy on the offensive end and Southwest finally started to get into an offensive rhythm, getting the ball into their post player, Nick Smith, at will. But they were not able to get any closer than 8 as Haley hit some timely shots to keep Northwest in front.
Northwest weathered an early storm by Southwest early in the second half and started working the ball into Dillon Starzl at will as they went ahead 51-37 with 14:55 left in the second half. Southwest tried to switch from their normal pick and roll game into a passing game, but Northwest's post players were swinging it to the weak-size 3-point shooters and recognizing the double teams which were coming their way. Consequently, Northwest went up 61-46 with 8:38 left, their biggest lead of the night.
Finally, Southwest made another adjustment and began jumping passes on defense; the move was successful in switching the momentum in their favor. Finally, Mustang player Jordan Buddenhagen, who had not scored all night to that point, suddenly knocked down back to back 3-pointers to cut Northwest's lead to 65-60. But then Southwest broke down on defense as they overextended on their press and nobody got back on defense to guard Dillon Starzl, who got behind the press and dunked to make it 67-60. Southwest answered to cut it to 67-62, but then Tyler Funk kept an offensive possession alive with an offensive board and that led to a DeAngelo Haley 3-pointer to make it 70-62 with 1:42 left. Haley then took a charge on defense and Northwest scored again to put it out of reach at 72-62.
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