Northwest comes up short without Pitts

JOPLIN, Mo. — The Northwest men’s basketball team lost its second straight MIAA game Wednesday night, falling 77-65 to Missouri Southern in its first game without leading scorer, redshirt-freshman guard Justin Pitts.

Pitts suffered a leg injury in the Bearcats’ 66-61 loss to Central Missouri on Jan. 17, but is averaging a team-high 16.1 points per contest.

Instead of looking to replace Pitts’ scoring on the perimeter, Northwest head coach Ben McCollum gave the starting nod to redshirt-freshman forward Brett Dougherty, who scored 12 points and corralled seven rebounds.

The Bearcats trailed from the start before sophomore forward Zach Schneider hit a three-pointer to give Northwest a 15-14 lead with 8:25 left in the first half.

After a Missouri Southern turnover, junior guard Conner Crooker made back-to-back jumpers to give the Cats a 20-15 advantage.

The Lions closed back to two before layups from sophomore guard Anthony Woods and Dougherty gave Northwest a six-point lead.

Southern then went on a 13-2 run to close the half and took a 31-26 lead into the locker room, and controlled the game the rest of the way.

Crooker scored 15 points to lead Northwest while junior guard Lyle Harris scored a career-high 14 points.

Northwest, however, shot just 26 percent (21-of-59) from the field.

Taevaunn Prince led all scorers with 26 points while Austin Wright, Cameron Cornelius and Lane Barlow all reached double figures for the Lions (12-6, 6-3 MIAA).

The loss, Northwest’s third in four games, drops them to 13-5 on the season and 6-4 in conference play — a skid that has knocked the Bearcats to sixth in the MIAA from its previous perch atop the conference.

Northwest now has a week off before first-place Lindenwood (11-6, 6-2 MIAA) comes to Maryville for a 7:30 p.m. matchup Wednesday, Jan. 28.