Northwest Missouri State's men survived an overtime scare against Lindenwood before recovering to win 73-66 and then turned around and got a rare blowout win, 90-60 over Kearney State as they faced two MIAA newcomers. Lindenwood was going to be a tough team as coach Ben McCollum tabbed them as a top three team before the game even started. They lived up to their billing as they had a 6'11" player as well as a whole stable of 3-point shooters to back him up. Northwest let the lead slip away in the last few minutes of regulation before recovering to win in overtime. But McCollum took the blame for what happened. "I didn't do a good enough job of setting up plays for them or getting them settled down in the last few minutes of regulation," he said on the radio following the game. "It's all on me; it's not going to happen again."
But the Bearcat men grew up in a lot of ways as well; they learned to play on the floor without DeAngelo Haley, who has emerged as their go-to man after their leading scorer from last year, DeShaun Cooper, was sidelined indefinitely with an injury. Lindenwood began chipping away at Northwest's lead after Haley was sidelined with foul trouble at the 14:17 mark of the second half and Northwest leading 48-32. By the time Haley came back in at the 8:49 mark, the lead was down to 10 at 52-42 as Northwest was struggling to find a scoring answer. Northwest was not getting to the rim and drawing fouls on the Lions, who only had three fouls as late as the three minute mark of regulation; this meant that the Lions could throw their best lineup on the floor while Northwest had to play carefully with their foul trouble. This meant that in the last three minutes, Lindenwood could afford to be very aggressive on their press and force a bunch of turnovers, which fueld their comeback bid.
Finally, Haley picked up his fifth foul with 12.7 seconds trying to get an offensive board after Northwest point guard Matt Wallace hit the front end of a one and one and missed the second, allowing the Lions to tie the game at 60. Alex Sullivan's runner was blocked out of bounds and the game then went into overtime.
Facing five minutes without Haley was a daunting task, but Northwest grew up in a big way in the extra frame, completely outplaying the Lions without their go-to player on the court. Alex Sullivan's 3-pointer off a Wallace kickout did much to restore the team's confidence at the 4:34 mark in overtime. Brett Thompson, Lindenwood's 6'11" post player, was a force on defense and blocked six shots for the night and altered many more; he dwarfed the Bearcat post players, who are normally the biggest men out on the court. But after a series of defensive stops by both teams, Dillon Starzl finally got one to go over Thompson to make it a two-possession game. Cody Sorenson converted a 3-point play with 43.6 seconds left after a Northwest defender fell but then Aullivan hit a free throw and then Tyler Funk made a diving steal and managed to call timeout before he fell out of bounds to give Northwest back the ball. Alex Bazzell hit a 3-pointer for Lindenwood to make it 69-66 but then St. Joseph/Lafayette product Bryston Williams went 4 for 4 from the line in the last 20 seconds to ice the game for Northwest.
Northwest won the battle of the boards handily despite Lindenwood's size advantage 47-37. Kyle Schlake had 10 boards and Bryston Williams and Alex Sullivan had six each. Five players had at least five boards for Northwest. Haley had 18 points for Northwest along with Sullivan. Dillon Starzl had 13 and Matt Wallace had 11 points and 5 assists.
Northwest then turned around and got a rare blowout win over Kearney 90-60. The two teams have scrimmaged together a lot in the past, so it figured to be another dogfight especially as the teams were a lot more familiar with each other than normal. But Northwest got a lot more transition looks than usual in jumping to a 21-8 lead at the 12:01 mark; they raised it to a 45-24 lead at the half. The other factor was the play of reserve post Grant Cozad. He showed his ability to score points in bunches as he got eight in just a three minute span when he first came off the bench and 13 for the half. He led the scoring with a career high 17 points. DeAngelo Hailey stayed on the floor this time and only needed 18 minutes to get 14 points, most of them in the first half when the team was pulling away.
With the game well in hand, Coach Ben McCollum put in little-used Lyle Harris and Kyler Erickson. Harris had 5 points in 14 minutes of work while Erickson got 4 points in 9 minutes of work. Everyone but Matt Wallace scored for the Bearcats; however, Wallace was one of the big catalysts for the Bearcats as he had 12 assists and only one turnover in 24 minutes work. Tyler Funk had 12 points, Alex Sullivan had 11, and Conner Crooker, normally a role player, had 9 points in just 18 minutes of work. Northwest beat Kearney across the board as they outrebounded them 37-27 and forced eight more turnovers as Kearney surrendered the ball 14 times to only six for Northwest. Northwest outshot Kearney 53% to 41% for the night.
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