Northwest men fall by two in Sweet 16
DALTON VITT/DAILY FORUM
Northwest junior Anthony Woods tries to score and draw a foul during the MIAA Tournament championship against Nebraska-Kearney last week. The Bearcats fell to No. 1-ranked Augustana Tuesday night in the Central Region finals, ending with a 27-6 record.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – It would have been the escape to end all escapes.
Northwest Missouri State had the last possession and a chance to break Augustana hearts once again Tuesday night at the Sanford Pentagon.
Instead, the Bearcats suffered a third-straight exit in the Sweet 16, falling 80-78 in an NCAA Division II Central Region championship game that lived up to its incredibly high expectations.
“It’s heartbreaking for (the players),” Northwest coach Ben McCollum said. “I feel absolutely horrible. You feel like you let these kids down. … All that goes through your head and you just feel so bad for your kids.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the way they played.”
How the game came down to the final possession will be talked about as long as basketball is still being played at Northwest. Trailing by eight points with 2 minutes, 28 seconds left, Bearcats point guard Justin Pitts still had time for one last act in his sophomore season of wizardry.
On four consecutive possessions, the 5-foot-9 Pitts drove straight into the teeth of Augustana’s tall, long defense. All four times, he found a way to get the ball in the hoop.
The last of his game-high 34 points tied the score at 78 with 23 seconds left, leaving each of the 3,221 fans in the Sanford Pentagon in a sense of disbelief. All of them except the man himself.
“I just kept looking at coach (McCollum) and he said to just get the ball and start going to the rim,” Pitts said. “… That’s what I was doing. I was just getting it and going, trying to attack.”
Out of timeouts, the Vikings (31-2) let the clock wind down and sent their own sophomore point guard to try to win the game. Jordan Spencer got past Pitts and took off into Northwest junior sharpshooter Zach Schneider, who swatted the shot but was judged to have hit Spencer on the follow through.
The Englishman nailed both foul shots to give top-seeded Augustana the lead with less than 5 seconds remaining.
Without a timeout, Northwest had one final chance from underneath its own basket. The Vikings smartly took Pitts away, but senior guard Conner Crooker’s defender slipped, leaving him with a wide-open path to half court and beyond.
Sophomore forward Chris-Ebou Ndow threw the pass over the top, but it came up inches short around half court – leaving room for Augustana’s John Warren to swoop in and deflect it. End scene.
“(The pass) was just a little short,” McCollum said. “It wasn’t Chris’ fault. Conner was gone. I was like, ‘oh, there it is.’ Just a little bit short. Conner would have made it, too, there’s no doubt in my mind.”
Northwest (27-6) came in seeded second in the region, one spot behind Augustana – which played host to Tuesday’s raucous crowd. It marked the third year in a row the Bearcats have played the regional host, and for the first time they did not win.
Augustana will move on to next week’s Elite Eight in Frisco, Texas, while Northwest will return home disappointed yet again.
“I’m probably going to guess that Augustana is going to win the national title,” McCollum said. “I feel like we’re the two best teams in the country and they just came out on top tonight.”
The Bearcats and Vikings faced each other three times the past two seasons, with the games decided by a total of five points. Northwest ended Augustana’s season exactly one year prior to Tuesday’s grudge match.
“They’re a great team,” said Augustana forward Casey Schilling, who scored a team-high 24 points. “Obviously we didn’t want to lose to them last year, that added a ton of fuel to the fire.”
The stakes were palpable from the opening tip, and the teams could not be separated in the first half.
Northwest had the faster start after sophomore forward Brett Dougherty blocked Central Region Player of the Year Dan Jansen’s layup attempt on the first possession and Ndow scored the first five points of the game.
Augustana responded, creating the first tie at 12-12 with 14:09 left in the half. The lead changed hands nine times and there were nine ties during the opening 20 minutes. The Vikings, however, took control to begin the second.
Thanks to a pair of costly Northwest turnovers, an 8-0 run allowed Augustana to take a 50-43 lead with 16:24 to play. Every time the Bearcats threatened to make a run back, the Vikings had an answer.
Pitts was far and away the game’s best player. He scored 16 points in the first half on 7-for-9 shooting, and finished 13 of 20 from the field , 3-for-4 from 3-point range and 5-for-7 from the foul line. After watching him torch Minnesota State for 38 points on Sunday, the Vikings were determined not to let him shoot many 3s – a goal they accomplished.
Augustana also limited Pitts’ driving ability at the beginning of the second half, but Crooker stepped up to fill the scoring void. Northwest’s lone senior had 19 points.
Pitts and Crooker joined Schilling, Jansen and Nebraska-Kearney forward Connor Beranek on the all-tournament team. Despite the loss, Pitts earned the honor of most outstanding player – an award voted on by the assembled media.
“It’s a big accomplishment,” Pitts said. “I’m really not thinking about it right now, but only being a sophomore and being able to do all the things that I’ve done … I couldn’t have done it without my coaches and my team trusting in me to go make shots.”
Schneider and Dougherty both fouled out of the game. Northwest committed 22 fouls which resulted in Augustana making 23 of 28 free throws. The Bearcats connected on 6 of 10 attempts.
“We scored a lot of points in the paint and didn’t get a lot of free throws,” McCollum said. “It’s tough.”
