Bearcats get another shot at Vikings
DAILY FORUM FILE PHOTO
Northwest Missouri State University’s D’Vante Mosby splits the Lindenwood defense during the Bearcats’ 75-73 victory over the Lions during the 2015 season.
After winning its first two games of the season handily, the No. 6 ranked Northwest Missouri State University men’s basketball team will face its first real test of the season on Thursday when Augustana (South Dakota) comes to Maryville for a 7 p.m. tipoff. Augustana – currently ranked 18th in the nation – ended the Bearcats’ season last year in the Regional Final, 80-78, en route to an NCAA Division II National Championship over Lincoln Memorial.
Early on in the 2015-16 season, the Bearcats lost to the Vikings in a non-conference game in Sioux Falls, also by two points. Augustana’s winning machine lost some of the key cogs from last season, however, including standout forward Daniel Jansen, who averaged 20.6 points and 7.3 rebounds in the 2015-16 campaign. 14th-year head coach Tom Billeter’s team also lost Casey Schilling, the team’s second leading scorer at 19.6 and leading rebounder at 9.7 per game, and Alex Richter, who tacked on 14.5 per game himself. The amorphous Augustana Vikings will still be striving to find an identity in the early portion of their season after losing over 55 points of their offense per game to graduation.
The taste of defeat still lingers in the mouth of Northwest head coach Ben McCollum, as he and his team look to avenge the pair of one-possession losses from last season.
“It’s always fun in Division II to have these kinds of rivalries, where people follow it and people come out and watch it,” McCollum said. “It makes it not another game in Bearcat Arena, but it makes it a primetime game, which is what college athletics is all about.”
McCollum said that loading his team’s non-conference schedule each season gives the Bearcats some advantages, including seeing what the team’s unknown weaknesses may be and padding the strength of schedule for Regional selections once conference tournaments have wound down in early March.
McCollum believes that Augustana has just the kind of winning program that could show the Bearcats where they really stand early in the season before MIAA competition.
“They’re very well coached,” McCollum said. “Generally, all five guys on the floor can shoot it for them, which makes them hard to defend. They play fast, they get offensive rebounds, and defensively they’ve got a great deal of length to pose a threat to us.”
After Thursday night’s highly-touted matchup, the Bearcats will saddle up and cruise to Denver, Colorado, where they will face off against Metro State at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Metro State will enter the game with a 2-1 record.
