Northwest Missouri State's men, after jumping out in front in the MIAA race, lost their second straight game and fell out of first place with a 70-65 loss to Lincoln. The Blue Tigers came in shooting red hot, raining jumper after jumper with a hand in their face. Northwest had a size advantage over Lincoln and they were effective when they were getting the ball into their front line, one of the biggest in the MIAA. But when they got away from that and settled for jump shots or they tried to force passes that were not there, then they would go into a long scoring slump. They have played a lot of games on the edge; when you live on the edge, sometimes, you fall off.
Lincoln elected to play a 1-2-2 zone against Northwest; the Bearcats got some good looks early behind the back of the zone but when Lincoln closed those looks off, Northwest struggled to find answers. Dillon Starzl's putback and inside shot and two Alex Sullivan 3-pointers put Northwest up 10-7, but then Lincoln started making jumper after jumper with a hand in their face. With Northwest out of sync against a defense that they had not seen much of all year, Greg Motley was scoring at will for the Blue Tigers, who went up 30-18 following a Motley 3-pointer from way behind the arc.
The one thing that finally disturbed the Lincoln players was not the Bearcat players, but the student body, who twice rushed the Lincoln players into premature off-balance shots with a false countdown. The students did a third false countdown and Lincoln's players this time thought there was plenty of time on the clock when there wasn't, committing a shot clock violation. Northwest finally got back to their game plan, getting the ball inside to Kyle Schlake and Dillon Starzl as they cut it to 30-25 before Lincoln pushed it back up to 35-26.
Northwest started reserve guard Tyler Funk in the second half and he provided a spark with a steal and score and then a lob to Dillon Starzl inside to make it 35-30. But then once again, Lincoln started making one tough shot with a hand in their face after another and closed off the inside as they pushed it back out to 46-34. But then Charles Cole of Lincoln tried for an exclamation point dunk and missed it and Alex Sullivan hit a 3-pointer on the other end for a five-point swing; Northwest was down 9 instead of 14.
Lincoln went to their delay game with five minutes left and took some time off and traded buckets, but then Northwest went to a five-guard look and checked in little-used Lyle Harris with three minutes left. With former standout DeShaun Cooper out for the year with an injury, it was as though he had never left as Harris immediately made his presence felt with 1:57 left, getting a steal off the press to make it 56-47. Tyler Funk then got a steal and fed DeAngelo Hailey for a layup to make it 56-49 with 1:27 left. Harris then got another steal, but then the whims of the referees intervened. It was a clean steal, but the referees called him for a foul; certain officials call things on freshmen because they are freshmen even through that sort of thing is never called for in the rulebook.
Lincoln hit two free throws on their ensuing possession, but then Lyle Harris scored on a drive; he showed that he was the quickest player out on the floor during that series. Tyler Funk followed with a steal to make it 58-53. Cedric Ridle hit two free throws for Lincoln, but then Lyle Harris struck again, hitting Alex Sullivan for a 3-pointer to make it 60-56. Devin Booker hit two free throws with 51.3 seconds left, but Lyle Harris drove and drew a foul, hitting both free throws to make it 60-56 with 46.7 seconds left.
Northwest got a tieup and the ball back with a chance to make it one possession, but DeAngelo Hailey committed an offensive foul as he contacted his defender with a shoulder to the face. Lincoln then hit two free throws and then following a Northwest turnover, hit two more to make it 66-58 with 29.9 seconds left. But then Lyle Harris went coast to coast for a layup with 25.2 seconds left and a bad pass went out of bounds off Lincoln to give Northwest the ball back. They took advantage as Bryston Williams scored a backdoor layup to make it 66-62. Lincoln hit two more free throws, but then DeAngelo Hailey hit a 3-pointer to make it 68-65 and Lincoln threw a pass away with 13.7 seconds left.
Northwest had the ball back, but they were out of timeouts and they could not set up a play. They got the ball into Hailey, but his 3-point attempt was blocked and Lincoln hit both of their free throws with 11.2 seconds left and Northwest missed two shots at the basket that would have kept it alive.
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