By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
No. 1 seed and No. 1 ranked Northwest Missouri State (22-1) put on a scoring display in a 100-61 MIAA Tournament quarterfinal victory over Emporia State at Bearcat Arena Wednesday.
The Bearcats shot 60 percent or better for the third straight game and moved its current win streak to 17 in a row.
"I thought we were really locked in and had a good game plan," Bearcat coach Ben McCollum said. "Just really good defensively. That's the best defense we've played all year."
Junior and MIAA Player of the Year Trevor Hudgins scored 31 points on 11-of-15 shooting, including 7-of-10 from three.
"I feel like tonight we just played really good with a lot of energy," Hudgins said. "Very intense and a lot of focus. We were just making shots and getting stops."
Senior Ryan Hawkins tallied 25 points and became the school's all-time leading rebounder with a double-double (10 rebounds).
Junior and MIAA Defensive Player of the Year Diego Bernard notched 18 points, nine rebounds, four steals and two assists.
The game was decided basically in the first five minutes with Northwest making its first six shots and taking a 20-5 lead.
The Bearcats led 60-19 at the half - the largest scoring margin ever in an MIAA Tournament game.
Northwest continued its shooting crusade in the second half, building a 50-point lead at 93-43.
"It's fun to watch," McCollum said. "They're good kids and they play hard. We were able to continue our fight throughout. I thought (Emporia) was going to make a run, but our defense held up so well."
Northwest will play again Friday in the first MIAA Tournament semifinal against Central Oklahoma at 5 p.m. in Bearcat Arena.
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