Bearcats drop two in D2CCA Tip-Off Classic
JON DYKSTRA/THE FORUM
Northwest senior Ella Moody jumps into a passing lane on Sunday in St. Joseph.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. —The college basketball schedule has transformed over the years.
Northwest Missouri State women’s basketball opened the season with a 77-35 win over Central College last Tuesday then transitioned into the D2CCA Tip-Off Classic in St. Joseph. The event is a week before the rest of college basketball can open its season and draws some of Division-II’s top teams to St. Joseph.
Northwest (0-2) fell to Adams State 56-51 on Friday afternoon. They followed that with a second-straight NCAA Tournament team from last season with West Texas A&M and lost 67-51.
“When you go back and watch the film, you are breaking it down against NCAA Tournament teams from last year, good teams,” Northwest coach Austin Meyer said. “You get exposed on some things that maybe you don’t if you play lesser talent.”
The Bearcats have four new starters this season and had growing pains in each game with bad quarters. Against Adams State, it was the third quarter where a 22-20 halftime lead flipped into 36-30 deficit going into the fourth quarter.
Andrea Lopreato led Northwest in scoring with 16 points against the Grizzlies while Ella Moody had nine, and Kirsten Hauck and Kenzie Melcher each had eight.
“It is always good to be on the court,” Moody said. “It is always good to get minutes. I’m really grateful to have such a great team to be able to play with and it was great just being out there again.”
On Sunday, Northwest got off to a red-hot start against West Texas A&M with 21 points in the first quarter on 9-of-18 shooting from the field.
“We were really into it defensively,” Meyer said. “Even though we had our struggles with not scoring in the second quarter, we weren’t letting that affect us defensively.”
The Bearcats had nine made field goals for the rest of the game. Northwest only made one field goal in the second quarter — going the first 9:56 without one before Moody hit a jumper with four seconds left in the half to cut the Buffs’ lead to 31-28 at the break.
“Not losing confidence,” Melcher said is the key to avoiding scoring droughts. “Just keep pushing and know that we can do it.”
The drought continued in the third quarter with West Texas A&M going on a 8-0 run in the first six minutes of the half. Northwest true freshman Bailey Birmingham broke the streak with a 3-pointer with 3:41 left in the quarter.
Northwest got within five points on a 3-pointer by redshirt freshman Avery Yosten. The Buffs finished the quarter with a 10-point advantage and quickly grew it to 16 in the fourth quarter.
Melcher and Lopreato shared the team lead in scoring with 10 points each. Moody added nine points.
“This tournament has great teams and is great competition for us,” Moody said. “It is kinda a starting point for us. We can see what we need to work on and what we need to focus on in the gym.”
Northwest played 11 players at least 12 minutes.
“I think that we have some young kids and you add in the redshirts, we’ve got five or six freshmen who played some minutes,” Meyer said. “We are excited about our group. It is a long season, but we have a couple weeks now to try and get ready for the next two.”
The Bearcats go back into preseason mode with two week’s before they are back in St. Joseph for the Central Region Showcase with Sioux Falls on Nov. 14 and Wayne State on Nov. 15. Before that, they have an exhibition against Livin’ the Dream on Nov. 11 at Bearcat Arena.
“I feel like this is a team that is going to just keep getting better the more they play with each other and learn how to play off of each other,” Meyer said.
