Bearcats return home looking to end three-game skid

Three straight road losses to teams above them in the MIAA standings have zapped some of the momentum built up by Northwest Missouri State's women basketball team during an 8-2 start.

With a home game tonight against 11th place Lincoln (7-7, 2-4) at 5:30 p.m., the Bearcats (8-5, 2-3) have a great opportunity to stop the bleeding before they head back on the road for three more games.

It's one the Bearcats can't afford to miss on given what lies ahead.

"At this point you want to stop it as quickly as you can and kind of get back on track," said Northwest Missouri State first-year head coach Mark Kellogg. "We haven't had the feeling now in a while. We had the break and we haven't won since. We need to get back on track. You're back at home in league and you got to find a way."

Northwest played its best game of the road stretch Saturday in a 68-66 loss to Missouri Western in St. Joseph.

This was especially the case offensively, with the Bearcats shooting close to 43 percent and 9-19 from three. They averaged 51 points on 32 percent shooting at Missouri Southern and No. 24 Pittsburg State.

The Bearcats got up as many seven on Western in the second half before falling behind by nine but gave themselves two chances to tie or take the lead in the final minute.

Kellogg acknowledged the team's improved play, but still wasn't satisfied with the outcome.

This is his first time dealing with a three-game losing streak since his first year at Fort Lewis.

"We're not going to let them get complacent or get comfortable and think that's okay or acceptable by any means," said Kellogg. "I do think they get that. I want to be careful. After Mo. West, a lot of people were telling them 'oh, you guys played so hard and played so much better.' They did. That's fine. We still didn't get the result we wanted. We got to start basing this a little bit off wins and losses at some point."

Northwest is currently tied with Emporia State and Fort Hays State for eighth place in the league, and the Blue Tigers sit a half-game back.

Lincoln is coming off back-to-back home losses to Pittsburg State and Missouri Southern. The Blue Tigers are also the only team in the league to lose to Nebraska-Kearney and dropped a road game to Truman State.

They own an impressive home win over Northeastern State and beat Southwest Baptist to start a recently completed three-game homestand.

"They've got some good wins, probably some losses they would like to have back," said Kellogg. "They got some talent. I think they're just trying to piece it together. They're athletic in the post. They got some guards that can play. Not a lot of depth, so we kind of match up well from that standpoint.

An MIAA Tournament semifinalist last year that swept Northwest in the regular season, Lincoln lost former head coach Katie Vaughan to Missouri-St. Louis. She was replaced by Nicole Collier, an assistant for the last three years.

Lincoln ranks 12th in the MIAA in both scoring offense and scoring defense. It's also 14th in field goal percentage and last in field goal percentage defense.

The Blue Tigers are the league leader in offensive rebounds and rank second behind Northwest in steals.

Senior guard Freddie Sims leads the Blue Tigers with 13.7 points per game. Senior guard Ariana Walker, who had 39 in an MIAA Tournament win over Pittsburg State last year, averages 13.6 points per game, five rebounds and 4.4 assists.

Dahlia Booker, a 5-10 senior forward, is the team's third double-figure scorer with 10.9 points per game.

Northwest's eight-man rotation includes five players averaging better than nine points per game.

Ashleigh Nelson took over the as team leader in scoring with her career-high 26 point outing against Missouri Western. She averages 11.9 points per game and is shooting over 46 percent from three.

Maggie Marnin is second with 10.7 points per game followed by Meridee Scott at 10.2 points per game.

Only Marnin and Nelson were in double-figures at Western.

"We just can't rely on Nelson to do that every night," said Kellogg. "She had it going. She was in the zone. We did a good job of getting her some looks, but we need to get Meridee those same looks. We need to get Ashley Thayer, Annie Mathews going. The challenge is to get eight or nine players going on the same night instead of one or two. We need everybody to be really good every night for us to have success."