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Anyone who questioned whether Northwest Missouri State had any fight left after Saturday's 23-point home loss to Fort Hays State got a surprising answer Wednesday night.
Yes, the Bearcats still have a pulse.
What was expected to be and shaped up to be a fourth straight double-digit loss for Northwest ended up as an absolute nailbiter.
The Bearcats wiped out a double-digit deficit to lead No. 10 Northeastern State in the second half and took them right down to the final buzzer before losing 58-55 at Bearcat Arena.
Only when Abby Henry's potential game-tying three-pointer bounced off the rim could the Riverhawks breath easy.
It goes down as Northwest Missouri State's fifth straight loss, but the Bearcats have to be feeling much better about the rest of their season at this point.
"It just shows that we haven't given up," said Henry. "We could've easily given up a long time ago, but we're still in this thing. We still want to make it to Kansas City. We're going to keep fighting until the end. Hopefully, that gives us a little momentum."
Northwest (4-17, 2-11) fought through another dismal offensive start and back from a 17-7 first half deficit to lead by four with 14 minutes left in the second half.
The Riverhawks regained the lead on a three by Taylor Lewis with 11:50 left and never gave it up even though Northwest was always within six points and twice within one.
"We hung around and when teams hang around they're dangerous," said Northwest Missouri State head coach Gene Steinmeyer. "When we got the four point lead, that's when we needed to expand it. The momentum was on our side. The crowd was sparse, but yet they were on our side. They caught us. That was the crucial part. We were hangers. We hung all night. We were dangerous, not dangerous enough to win it."
Northwest trailed 56-50 with with 2:55 left, but a three by Meridee Scott that bounced in, two point-blank misses by the Riverhawks and two free throws by Henry made it a one-point game at the 1:24 mark.
After a rare miss by three-point specialist Tosha Tyler on a bank shot, the Bearcats got the ball back a chance to go in front.
Coming out of a timeout, Henry tried to drive the lane but couldn't get up a clean look against tight defense.
Anyone who questioned whether Northwest Missouri State had any fight left after Saturday's 23-point home loss to Fort Hays State got a surprising answer Wednesday night.
Yes, the Bearcats still have a pulse.
What was expected to be and shaped up to be a fourth straight double-digit loss for Northwest ended up as an absolute nailbiter.
The Bearcats wiped out a double-digit deficit to lead No. 10 Northeastern State in the second half and took them right down to the final buzzer before losing 58-55 at Bearcat Arena.
Only when Abby Henry's potential game-tying three-pointer bounced off the rim could the Riverhawks breath easy.
It goes down as Northwest Missouri State's fifth straight loss, but the Bearcats have to be feeling much better about the rest of their season at this point.
"It just shows that we haven't given up," said Henry. "We could've easily given up a long time ago, but we're still in this thing. We still want to make it to Kansas City. We're going to keep fighting until the end. Hopefully, that gives us a little momentum."
Northwest (4-17, 2-11) fought through another dismal offensive start and back from a 17-7 first half deficit to lead by four with 14 minutes left in the second half.
The Riverhawks regained the lead on a three by Taylor Lewis with 11:50 left and never gave it up even though Northwest was always within six points and twice within one.
"We hung around and when teams hang around they're dangerous," said Northwest Missouri State head coach Gene Steinmeyer. "When we got the four point lead, that's when we needed to expand it. The momentum was on our side. The crowd was sparse, but yet they were on our side. They caught us. That was the crucial part. We were hangers. We hung all night. We were dangerous, not dangerous enough to win it."
Northwest trailed 56-50 with with 2:55 left, but a three by Meridee Scott that bounced in, two point-blank misses by the Riverhawks and two free throws by Henry made it a one-point game at the 1:24 mark.
After a rare miss by three-point specialist Tosha Tyler on a bank shot, the Bearcats got the ball back a chance to go in front.
Coming out of a timeout, Henry tried to drive the lane but couldn't get up a clean look against tight defense.
Northwest fouled NSU's Taylor Lewis with 20.7 seconds left. She missed the front end of a one-and-one, but the ball caromed long to Sarah Green who came up the offensive board.
Green was fouled and made both attempts with 18.9 seconds left to put Northeastern up three.
"Maggie (Marnin) had just gotten a great defensive rebound the possession before that and so I put her in the game, but they were only going to take long rebounds," said Steinmeyer. "She stepped too far under instead of actually finding a body. She's a freshman. She did a good job for us tonight. I got frustrated and said something to her I wish I hadn't. She's a good kid and she tried as hard as she could. She just made a mistake."
Instead of going for the quick two and fouling, Northwest elected to go for the tying three.
The Bearcats dribbled around the perimeter and coudldn't find any immediate openings.
Henry finally found some daylight off a dribble screen at the top and got a good look a three that missed just to the right as the final buzzer sounded.
"I did sort of wish I could have it back," said Henry. "I almost thought it was going in for a second, but I mean it was a good look. We wanted to get a shot off and we did. Unfortunately, it didn't go in."
While deflating, the three-point defeat is by far the closest Northwest has come against a ranked team this year.
Previous to this, Northwest had lost by at least 13 to five ranked opponents, including a 69-42 loss to Northeastern State on Nov. 15 in Tahlequah.
Northwest nearly pulled off the upset despite shooting only 18-60 (30.0 percent) from the field, 6-26 (23.1 percent) from three and 13-20 from the foul line.
It was a slight improvement over Saturday when the Bearcats shot 24 percent from the field.
"The ball started going in the basket a little bit tonight, just a little bit," said Steinmeyer.
Shelly Martin led Northwest with 12 points on 4-8 shooting and 2-8 from three. Her biggest asset, though, was her team-leading six steals.
Henry had 11 points, six assists and five rebounds, but was only 3-13 from the field, 1-5 on three's and 4-7 at the foul line.
Freshman Annie Mathews was far more efficient with her 11 points, hitting 5-9 shots. She also grabbed a team-leading seven rebounds.
"I'm really proud of Annie Mathews," said Steinmeyer. "She was the one they had to double-team. They changed their defense because of Annie Mathews."
Marnin added eight points and five rebounds. Scott chipped in seven with a three and four straight free throws.
The Riverhawks were led by Tyler with 17 points and Green with 12.
Those two combined to make 9-12 three-pointers. Tyler was a perfect 5-5 and made three big one's in the second half.
"All she does is shoot three's," said Steinmeyer. "Every shot she's made the last three games has been a three. For her to go 5-5, it's just inexcusable that we lost her. She gets 17 and that gets us beat."
Northeastern built an early 10-2 lead and went up 17-7 with 9:24 left in the first half when the Bearcats started to get in gear.
Held to seven points in the first 11:50, the Bearcats tripled their total over the final eight minutes and closed within three at the half.
Northwest was keyed by its trapping defense which forced Northeastern into 13 first half turnovers. The Riverhawks committed just four more turnovers in the second half.
"They didn't really like to be double-teamed or trap," said Henry. "I think that really caused them a few problems. We got some easy steals that led to some easy buckets."
Ashleigh Nelson hit a pair of three's to start the second half to tie it at 25 and 30. The second one was a desperation heave as the shot clock expired that banked in.
Northwest took its first lead with 16 minutes left on a three-point play by Marnin.
A hook by Annie Mathews gave Northwest a four-point lead, 37-33 with 14:16 left.
Northeastern countered with a 12-2 run book-ended by Tyler three's to go back up six.
The Bearcats never let them have any more breathing room than that, but couldn't get over the hump.
