Northwest Missouri State's men's basketball team got back on the winning track Saturday afternoon, beating Central Methodist 79-59 to snap a two-game losing streak. As they have in most of their wins this year, Northwest has made good use of their size; Central Methodist had nobody on their roster bigger than 6'5", meaning that they were at a size disadvantage against Northwest's bigs.
But Central Methodist made up for it by grabbing and tearing at the ball every chance they could get and collected some steals and cheap buckets in the process. Northwest let one of their shooters, Melvin Tillman, go off on them for 25 points and six 3-pointers.
For Northwest, Dillon Starzl did not start as he had the flu. He was able to come off the bench and get some points for Northwest. However, anytime a starting lineup is changed, it changes the chemistry of the team and Northwest struggled at times with their offense.
Northwest got ahead 21-13 with 10:30 left in the first half, but then when Matt Wallace came out, they began struggling with their offense, giving up a cheap bucket off a steal as well as a three seconds call. That made it 21-18, forcing Coach Ben McCollum to put Wallace back in. Northwest pushed the lead back up to seven at 28-21 as Bryston Williams took a charge on defense. But then Northwest made the mistake of fouling Tillman as he was making a 3-point shot; that was a play that got him and the Eagles going as they fought back to take a 29-28 lead.
Tyler Funk came off the bench for Northwest to take a charge on defense and DeAngelo Hailey scored some buckets late in the first half to put Northwest back up 35-31, but then Central Methodist came back to tie it at 35 at the break. The Eagles were running a dribble weave offense that was giving Northwest problems.
But then Northwest made a couple of adjustments at the half; they started Dillon Starzl for the second half and they switched on the dribble weave instead of going through the screens. That made it easier for Northwest to guard it and allow their off the ball defenders to stay on Tillman and the rest of their shooters.
Northwest fell behind 40-37 at the start of the second half, but then they fought back to tie it at 40 and then went ahead for good when Matt Wallace, falling to the floor, somehow got the ball away to Alex Sullivan for a 3-pointer on the opposite side corner. Sullivan then took a charge on defense and then Tyler Funk came off the bench once again and hit his second 3-pointer of the day to put Northwest up 45-40 following a Wallace kickout.
Northwest did a much better job of taking care of the ball in the second half and making use of their size advantage. They threw the ball away 11 times in the first half, but cut that down to 6 times in the second half.
Matt Wallace jumped a pass on defense and got an easy score to give Northwest its biggest lead so far at 51-42; he had five steals for the night. Post player Grant Cozad then hit Sullivan for a 3-pointer to get it into double digits; Northwest was doing a much better job of recognizing where the doubles were coming from when the ball went into the post and who was open in the second half.
Another highlight film play from Wallace sparked another run for Northwest. Tillman's shooting was keeping Central Methodist in the game, but then Grant Cozad stripped Tillman who was driving into the lane and got it to Matt Wallace in transition for a two on one. Wallace threw behind the back to DeAngelo Hailey to make it 61-48 and spark a run that left Northwest up 75-55 in the last few minutes of the game. Tyler Funk took his third charge on defense and Lyle Harris showed some potential with an emphatic drive to the basket down the stretch for Northwest.
Northwest had 10 different people in the scoring column. Alex Sullivan led the scoring with 18 and four 3-pointers. Grant Cozad followed with 13 and Tyler Funk followed with 10. Matt Wallace had 9, DeAngelo Hailey and Dillon Starzl had 8, Bryston Williams had 5, Kyle Schlake had 4, and Lyle Harris and Conner Crooker had 2 each.
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