Bernard, Bearcats fly past Griffons
JON DYKSTRA/THE FORUM
Northwest guard Diego Bernard makes a pass on Saturday against Missouri Western in St. Joseph.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Trevor Hudgins has had lots of chances to speak to the media recently. Seemingly every game, Hudgins is breaking another program record.
Saturday’s 84-61 victory over Missouri Western was another 20-plus point game, but the assembled media was going to give Hudgins a break from talking after the rivalry game.
Hudgins had something to say though and came out of the locker room and walked up to the cameras and microphones.
“I’m saying it is not about me today, it is about Diego Bernard,” Hudgins announced. “Hometown hero, yup, that is what we call him. Did you see him fly? Did you see him fly, ladies and gentlemen? Diego Bernard was flying.”
The play Hudgins was referencing came with 4:27 left in the game. Bernard read the pass from Western point guard Q Mays and intercepted it.
“I saw Caleb (Bennett) kinda like half set a screen and I saw Q’s eyes about to throw it to him,” Bernard explained. “I was like, ‘Could be the chance.’ I got the chance and was surprised I got up there.”
The rest was a flashback to the early days of high-flying Bernard at Northwest. Alone with just the rim in front of him, the St. Joseph native gave the fans at MWSU Fieldhouse a lasting memory as he threw down a one-handed dunk.
“That’s old D.B.,” Northwest coach Ben McCollum said. “I like that D.B.”
Northwest sophomore, but third-year player, Wes Dreamer also dunked in the game which is what Hudgins continued his impromptu press conference by referencing.
“We got two dunks today from people that are old on the team and I’m just so proud of them,” Hudgins said.
Hudgins says he is going to dunk before the end of the season.
“It is going to happen someday before I graduate,” Hudgins said as he finished his comments. “That’s all I got.”
The Griffons (9-12; 5-8 MIAA) showed more fight than they have in recent games early on as they were able to stay within a 35-32 halftime margin.
The Bearcats (21-2; 14-1 MIAA) were struggling to find their stroke from beyond the arc in the first half, going 3-for-11 on mostly open looks.
The Griffons also out-scored the Bearcats 18-14 in the paint in the first 20 minutes. That statistic completely changed in the second half with Northwest winning that battle 32-10 after halftime.
“We really emphasized getting inside today and using shot fakes,” Dreamer said. “I think that is what we did. … The three wasn’t falling, so we had to find different ways. I think we were able to get to the basket and get a lot of layups.”
The first five baskets of the second half were in the paint by Northwest. Some of that surge was the return of Bernard who sat most of the first half with foul trouble, but the Bearcats also worked the ball inside to Dreamer.
In addition to being a 3-point marksman for Northwest, Dreamer has proven very capable of scoring around the basket and had 6-straight Northwest points to extend the lead to 12 with eight minutes left.
“I like being in the post,” Dreamer said. “I’d rather do that than shoot threes, but I mean, being in the post allows me to shoot open threes.”
The Bearcats used a 14-0 run including the Bernard dunk and capped by a Dreamer 3-pointer to go up by 22. From there, the bench closed out the game.
Dreamer finished with 23 points while Hudgins had 21. Bernard and Waters each had 11 and Bernard had a double-double with 10 rebounds.
Northwest has three more road games next week with a trip to Emporia State on Tuesday, Pittsburg State on Thursday and Missouri Southern on Saturday.
