By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The Northwest Missouri State men's basketball team (25-2) overcame an 11-point deficit with 3:01 left in regulation and came away with a 91-86 overtime win over Northern State (19-2) on Tuesday in the Central Region Final at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
The Bearcats advance to their fifth Elite Eight and their third in the last five seasons.
Junior Trevor Hudgins scored 27 of his team-best 29 points after halftime. True freshman Byron Alexander posted a career-high 21 points in the victory.
"With our group and our heart, they've proven that there's always a chance," said Northwest head coach Ben McCollum. "They've come back from stuff like that and...wow. They just believed. Just unbelievable. I'm not sure I've seen many comebacks like that. In any games."
Northern State jumped out to an 18-6 lead seven minutes into the contest, but after a timeout, the Bearcats went on an 11-2 run to cut the Wolves' lead to 20-17 with 7:50 left in the half.
Northern State later pushed their lead to 60-53 with 9:35 left to play in the second half, and the Wolves' star player Parker Fox scored a game-high 34 points to help his team build a 76-65 with 3:01 to go in regulation.
It wasn't looking good for the Bearcats at that point, but senior Ryan Hawkins, who scored 19 points Tuesday, had confidence that his team had a lot more left in them.
"I knew we hadn't played even close to our best basketball," Hawkins said. "We hit a couple of big shots, and Trevor (Hudgins) especially took over at the end of regulation. That just shows how good of a player he is."
Hawkins became only the second player in program history to eclipse 2,000 career points, showing how good of a player he's been.
"He'll go down as one of the best, if not the best player in Northwest history," McCollum said of Hawkins afterward.
But anyway. Down 11 with three minutes to go, Northwest reeled off an improbable 14-3 run, which was capped off by a Trevor Hudgins three-pointer with five seconds left in regulation to knot the game at 79 and ultimately send it to overtime.
With Northern State making only 1-of-6 shots from the field in the extra period, freshman Isaiah Jackson salted away the victory by draining two free throws with nine seconds left in OT to give Northwest the 91-86 triumph.
"It was back and forth," McCollum said. "I thought we made a little run. We made a few shots, and got a little lucky to be honest with you, and come away with a big win. It was fun. I can't say enough about the heart of our kids."
Northwest is now onto The Elite Eight, which is set for March 24-27 in Evansville, Indiana. The bracket will be reseeded by the NCAA Division II men’s basketball committee and released some time on Wednesday.
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