Bearcat guards Hailey, Harris charged with misdemeanors

Two members of the Northwest Missouri State men's basketball team—senior guard DeAngelo Hailey and redshirt freshman guard Lyle Harris—were ticketed on misdemeanor charges for possession of marijuana in the late hours of Nov. 6 in Maryville.

A summons was issued to both individuals on the 300 Block of North Market Street at 10:41 p.m. The offense was considered a misdemeanor since both possessed less than 35 grams of marijuana.

"You're always disappointed when a situation like that happens," said Northwest Missouri State athletic director Wren Baker. "Coach (Ben McCollum) handled the discipline, and as far as we're concerned, we don't have any further comment. We have high expectations for our student-athletes. When they do something they shouldn't, there's discipline that's enforced both with our team and individual polices, and we move forward."

Neither Baker, nor Northwest Missouri State head men's basketball coach Ben McCollum would specify the disciplinary measures that were handed down.

However, both confirmed that Hailey and Harris were still part of the team.

Hailey, 22, and Harris, 20, sat out Northwest Missouri State's 86-65 regular season opening win over Graceland Sunday.

"All punishment is handled internally," said McCollum. "We hold our kids to a very, very high level of expectations. We always have and we always will. They definitely have been punished. Outside of that, everything will remain within our team as far as punishments of that nature."

McCollum said Hailey and Harris "owned up to their mistakes" right after the incident occurred.

They are the first known set of Northwest men's players to incur a misdemeanor drug charge since

McCollum took over as head coach before the 2009-2010 season.

"It's extremely unusual, and it's not going to happen again," said McCollum. "We hold kids to a high standard. We got high character young men. It's something we'll handle within the team and make sure to take every step so that it doesn't happen again."

Hailey, who started Northwest's 91-58 exhibition loss to Missouri, is the team's second leading returning scorer. He averaged 10.2 points per game last year and made honorable mention All-MIAA.

Hailey transferred to Northwest prior to the 2011-2012 season from Kankakee (Ill.) Community College.

Harris, a graduate of Columbia Hickman, redshirted last year and has yet to appear in a regular season game at Northwest. Harris played three minutes and scored two points in the exhibition game with Missouri.

He is the younger brother of Lance Harris, a former guard at Kansas State.

If both players are forced to sit out games, it would leave Northwest without its two top returning scorers from last year in the early-going.

Northwest starting point guard DeShaun Cooper is being held out right now with knee tendinitis issues and doesn't think he'll be back for 2-3 weeks.

The Bearcats (1-0) are back in action Friday against Rockhurst College at the Hillyard Classic in St. Joseph.