St. Joseph Post
The Northwest Missouri State men’s basketball team used a 24-0 run in the first half to cruise to an 85-44 victory over the Washburn Ichabods in the second round of the NCAA Central Region Tournament at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen, South Dakota on Sunday night.
This was the fourth meeting between Northwest and Washburn this season with the Ichabods winning the first meeting 84-82 in overtime in January. Northwest won the second meeting, 88-85 in OT and then Washburn won the rubber match last Saturday in the MIAA championship, 69-68.
Northwest (24-2) posted its largest margin of victory in an NCAA Tournament game, and the 44 points is the fewest Northwest has allowed in an NCAA Tournament game.
"I'm incredibly proud of the execution of our scouting report," head coach Ben McCollum said.
The Bearcats took the Ichabods to the woodshed with a 24-0 first-half run to take a 26-4 lead with 9:19 left before halftime.
Senior Ryan Hawkins buried all four three-point attempts he took in the run.
Hawkins led all scorers with 27 points, burying a team-high seven three-pointers. He added a team-high eight rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.
Northwest took a 44-16 lead into the locker room after shooting 60 percent in the first half.
The Bearcats came out just as hot in the second half and blitzed the Ichabods with a 28-3 run to start the frame. Northwest was up 72-19 lead with 11:09 left in the game. Holy smokes.
Northwest shot 55.6 percent from the field for the game. The Bearcats also drained 11 three-pointers.
Junior Trevor Hudgins scored 14 points and handed out a team-high eight assists to go along with three steals. Sophomore Wes Dreamer connected on 7-of-12 field goals for 17 points and six rebounds.
"Our attention to detail was focused to a T," Hudgins said. "We executed perfectly. We gave a lot of effort and the results show that."
Washburn was limited to 32.6 percent shooting from the field and made only 7-of-21 from beyond the arc.
Washburn’s first-team all-MIAA guard Tyler Geiman, the one who made the 3/4 court game-winning shot in the MIAA title game against the Bearcats only eight days prior in Maryville, was held to just five points on 2-of-14 shooting from the floor.
The Bearcats will meet Northern State (19-1) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Central Region Tournament final. The winner will advance to the Elite Eight, which is set for March 24-27 in Evansville, Indiana.