Northwest Missouri State's men's basketball team is still living in a perfect world, going 6-0 after holding off York College 80-69 Saturday afternoon in their final tuneup before MIAA play begins this week.
Northwest got off to a quick lead and then had to hold off several York charges before pulling away late for the win. York got off to an excellent start this year, but came in with a two game losing streak and were at 9-5 and did not want it to get to three straight. Northwest was seeking to make good use of their size. York initially tried to slow things down offensively and switch defenses on Northwest, but the Bearcat men were too disciplined for that to work as they quickly got off to a 15-4 lead capped with a kickout to Bryston Williams.
But then York changed their strategy and began raining down 3-pointers at will; they have at least six different players on their team that can shoot 3-pointers and two others that can drive the ball; that is very difficult for any team to guard. York was able to get back into the game as they were hitting everything they were throwing up. Northwest shot themselves in the foot to help York along as they were missing free throws; they missed four straight at one point during York's run. York led 30-29 at one point before Northwest fought back to take the lead at 37-35 at the half.
The goal for Northwest was to guard the York shooters, get to the rim more, and knock down their free throws in the second half. Northwest scored four quick points to go up 41-35 and give themselves a lead they would not relinquish. They only drew eight fouls on York in the first half, but they drew a lot more in the second half. York did not have a lot of size to begin with, so when two of their post players picked up their third foul at the 14:31 mark, the situation became critical for the Panthers. That created a serious matchup problem for them and Northwest was able to get the ball into Dillon Starzl at will; he had 24 for the night for Northwest on 9 of 10 shooting. Northwest was also doing a much better job of guarding the shooters in the second half; the Panthers only made two 3-pointers in the second half compared to seven in the first.
After leading by as much as six, Northwest briefly let York back into the game thanks to a pair of bad possessions on offense and giving up a couple of easy looks on defense; the Panthers closed to 64-62 at the 6:17 mark. But they missed two chances to tie or take the lead as Northwest went through a stretch where they missed four out of six from the line, allowing the Panthers to hang around. But they finally began converting from the line and began to pull away from York; point guard Matt Wallace's free throw with 1:03 left finally made it a three possession game at 73-66. York missed a 3-pointer that would have cut it to two again and Wallace's steal and breakaway dunk in the closing seconds made it 78-69 and iced it.
Northwest got a steal and Tyler Funk went in for a breakaway layup, but got a hard foul in the closing seconds that the trail official was going to call a routine foul, but the lead official called intentional. The York coach protested the intentional foul call and drew a technical foul, giving the officials a derisive cheer afterwards as Northwest was attempting their free throws as frustration set in over losing their third straight game.
No comments:
Post a Comment