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If they wish to extend their season into March, the Northwest Missouri State women can't delay stringing wins together any longer.
The final stretch of six winnable games has arrived that head coach Gene Steinmeyer said would define their season.
Northwest (4-18, 2-12) needs to win at least four of them and possibly five to make the MIAA Tournament, but Steinmeyer is hesitant to present it in that light.
"I know what the next six mean," said Steinmeyer. "I know what the next game means. I know what this week means. I'm not even going to bring it up to the team. I'm going to let the team focus on one little thing and that's Lincoln. I don't think we ought to look at the whole picture. I think we ought to look at one snap shot called Lincoln."
The Bearcats host the Blue Tigers tonight at 5:30 p.m. Lincoln (12-8, 6-8) is one of five teams remaining on Northwest's schedule that's ranked sixth or below in the conference.
Although the Bearcats are certainly capable of winning out, Steinmeyer is concerned that his group is so mentally beaten down at this point that they won't be able to summon the energy needed to make a late-season push.
Northwest is coming off a 40-point loss to No. 10 Pittsburg State—its worst in four seasons— and has lost six straight. Four of those were against teams ranked in the top 25 in the nation.
"My biggest fear was us getting beat up," said Steinmeyer. "I've been really trying to stay positive with my players and everything. It only goes so far. After a while, you can't fool a fooler. They know what's going on, and I just hope we can come out and really compete the next six games."
Besides the schedule, what should be rejuvenating to the downtrodden Bearcats is their proximity to eighth place.
Northwest currently sits in last by a half-game, but is only 1.5 games behind Missouri Western and Southwest Baptist for eighth.
Baptist plays at No. 21 Emporia State tonight. Western is off until Saturday when they visit Bearcat Arena. Southern hosts No. 10 Pittsburg State.
In this situation, one win could go along ways.
"I even think my coaching staff is a little down, but by Saturday we could be tied for eighth," said Steinmeyer. "In truth, we've got the easiest schedule of the bottom four teams of which three won't make it. If we can just pull one off against Lincoln, then we can start thinking what does Saturday mean."
If they wish to extend their season into March, the Northwest Missouri State women can't delay stringing wins together any longer.
The final stretch of six winnable games has arrived that head coach Gene Steinmeyer said would define their season.
Northwest (4-18, 2-12) needs to win at least four of them and possibly five to make the MIAA Tournament, but Steinmeyer is hesitant to present it in that light.
"I know what the next six mean," said Steinmeyer. "I know what the next game means. I know what this week means. I'm not even going to bring it up to the team. I'm going to let the team focus on one little thing and that's Lincoln. I don't think we ought to look at the whole picture. I think we ought to look at one snap shot called Lincoln."
The Bearcats host the Blue Tigers tonight at 5:30 p.m. Lincoln (12-8, 6-8) is one of five teams remaining on Northwest's schedule that's ranked sixth or below in the conference.
Although the Bearcats are certainly capable of winning out, Steinmeyer is concerned that his group is so mentally beaten down at this point that they won't be able to summon the energy needed to make a late-season push.
Northwest is coming off a 40-point loss to No. 10 Pittsburg State—its worst in four seasons— and has lost six straight. Four of those were against teams ranked in the top 25 in the nation.
"My biggest fear was us getting beat up," said Steinmeyer. "I've been really trying to stay positive with my players and everything. It only goes so far. After a while, you can't fool a fooler. They know what's going on, and I just hope we can come out and really compete the next six games."
Besides the schedule, what should be rejuvenating to the downtrodden Bearcats is their proximity to eighth place.
Northwest currently sits in last by a half-game, but is only 1.5 games behind Missouri Western and Southwest Baptist for eighth.
Baptist plays at No. 21 Emporia State tonight. Western is off until Saturday when they visit Bearcat Arena. Southern hosts No. 10 Pittsburg State.
In this situation, one win could go along ways.
"I even think my coaching staff is a little down, but by Saturday we could be tied for eighth," said Steinmeyer. "In truth, we've got the easiest schedule of the bottom four teams of which three won't make it. If we can just pull one off against Lincoln, then we can start thinking what does Saturday mean."
Northwest lost the first meeting to Lincoln 69-64 back on Dec. 30 in Jefferson City.
The Bearcats fell behind 18 in the second half and were down 14 with 4:13 left before making a feverish comeback to get within one in the final minute. Shelly Martin missed an open three-point attempt with 21 seconds left that would've tied it.
Northwest exposed some flaws in Lincoln's game during its comeback bid that it will look to take further advantage of.
"Lincoln is very fast and very aggressive," said Steinmeyer. "When they're running and gunning and going to the hold, man, they are tough to stop. If we're going to have any chance to beat them, we got to slow down their fast break. We got to keep them from dribble penetrating, but they got that 18 point lead on us they backed off and went slow. They're not that good of a ball-handling team when you pressure then. When they went slow, they just turned it over like crazy."
Lincoln has trailed off since a 4-1 start in the league, losing five of its last seven games.
The Blue Tigers lost their last time out to Central Missouri 67-61.
Lincoln's starting lineup is devoid of seniors and features three players averaging better than 11 points per game.
The Blue Tigers' main weapon is junior forward Vivian Essuon who averages 15.4 points and a league-best 9.8 rebounds per game.
Junior guard Freddie Sims averages 11.7 points followed by Arriana Walker at 11.6 points per game.
