Tempers flared Saturday night as Northwest Missouri State's women broke out of a slump with a vengeance and beat Lincoln at home 77-60. Tempers flared in the game as the officials handed out two technical fouls in a rough game that threatened to get out of hand at times. The referees seemed to focus more on calling ticky tack traveling calls than they were on keeping the game under control.
Northwest fell behind 10-0 right off the bat; they were settling too much for jump shots instead of running their plays and that played right into Lincoln's hands. The Blue Tigers game plan was to run up and down the floor and use their team speed to crash the offensive glass and get offensive boards. But Coach Mark Kellogg said that was simply an opportunity for Northwest to get out and run whenever they got a defensive board. Lincoln is the leading offensive rebounding team in the league and Saturday's performance did nothing to hurt that as they had over 20 for the night. But when you send all five people to the offensive glass, it is difficult even for a quick team like Lincoln to get back on defense. Consequently, Northwest put together one of their best halves of the year in shooting 70% and putting up 50 points in the second half.
After falling behind 10-0, Northwest was in danger of falling behind even more as an errant pass was headed out of bounds, setting up another Lincoln possession. But then Ashleigh Nelson hustled to save it from going out of bounds and saved it to Tember Schechinger for a layup to break the shutout. Annie Matthews followed with a free throw and then Meridee Scott tapped an errant inbounds pass into the basket. Ashleigh Nelson followed with a 3-pointer from the top of the key and Maggie Marnin scored off a fast break as Northwest came back and tied it at 10.
Lincoln maintained a narrow lead for most of the half as tempers flared at one point. Arrianna Walker got a technical foul for protesting a foul call at the 7:32 mark and Meridee Scott hit both free throws for Northwest. Lincoln jumped ahead 21-16 with 4:53 left at the final media timeout of the first half, but Meridee Scott went to the rim and drew a foul and hit both free throws. Monique Stevens hit a shot and Meridee Scott got a putback as Northwest took its first lead of the game at 22-21. Nobody led by more than one possession for the rest of the half as Lincoln led 28-27 at the break.
Northwest threw the ball away right off the bat to make it 30-27, but then Annie Matthews grabbed an offensive board off a Tember Schechinger miss and made an up and under move to score. Tember followed with a backdoor layup, Maggie Marnin scored off a lob, and Ashleigh Nelson scored off a steal as Northwest took its biggest lead of the game at 35-30. Northwest had a big size advantage on Lincoln and did a much better job of taking advantage of their size in the second half as both Annie Matthews and Maggie Marnin scored a lot in the half.
Jackeya Mitchell knifed through the Northwest press for a layup, but then Maggie Marnin hit Annie Matthews for a high-low to start a 15-0 run for Northwest. Ashleigh used a ball screen to drop a 3-pointer to make it 40-32. A bad call by the officials happened on the next play, when Annie Matthews was called for a walk by an official who was completely out of position. But then Monique Stevens took a charge on defense and then lobbed it into Maggie for a 3-point play. Monique then pushed it up the floor to Ashleigh Nelson for another 3-point play and then Ashleigh once again got behind the defense and got a pass from Stevens and turned it into free throws. Tember followed with a steal to make it 50-32.
Tember Schechinger picked up her third foul and had to sit down and Lincoln put on a press after every miss to break the run for a few minutes. There was a danger that the Blue Tigers would run Northwest right out of the gym; last year, the Bearcats built up a 15 point lead at home with 10 minutes to go, only to have Lincoln turn on the afterburners and beat Northwest by 15.
But then Ashleigh Nelson hit Meridee Scott for a backdoor layup and then Alexis Boeh came off the bench to spark Northwest. She scored off a drive with two seconds on the shot clock and then banked a shot off the right side; Tember came back and hit two free throws to push the lead over 20 at 65-42. At that point, the Lincoln coach got a technical foul protesting a non-call of a foul as Lincoln got a shot clock violation. Meridee Scott hit both free throws and then got a steal and fed Ashley Thayer for a layup for Northwest's biggest lead of the game at 69-42.
Meridee Scott and Tember Schechinger each had 15 for Northwest. Annie Matthews followed with 12, Ashleigh Nelson had 10, and Maggie Marnin had 9. Alexis Boeh and Ashley Thayer had 6 each and Monique Stevens and Rackell Goldson had 2 each. Nine of Northwest's players got into the scoring column. Annie Matthews had 10 rebounds for a double double, followed by Tember and Maggie with 5 each. Ashleigh Nelson and Ashley Thayer had 4 each. Tember Schechinger had 4 steals followed by Nelson with 3.
Northwest outscored Lincoln 44-36 in the paint. The Blue Tigers outscored Northwest 19-6 in second chance points. But Northwest outscored Lincoln 29-14 off the bench.
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