WARRENSBURG, Mo. (Jan. 12, 2017) -- Central Missouri battled and kept fighting back, but came up short to No. 1-ranked Northwest Missouri, falling 67-54 on Thursday night at the Multipurpose Building. The Mules fall to 9-4 overall and 3-3 in MIAA play.
The Bearcats (15-0, 7-0 MIAA) jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game and would never relinquish the lead. The Mules battled back with four quick points from
Marquiez Lawrence to pull within 7-4 at the 14:33 mark of the first half. The Bearcats pushed the lead to eight at 14-6, but a three from
Brad Woodson and a layup from
Dushaun Rice once again cut the lead to three at 14-11.
A 9-2 spurt put Northwest Missouri in front by 10 with just over five minutes to play in the half. The lead grew to 11 with 3:37 to play, but the Mules closed the half with an 8-3 spurt to pull within 30-24 at the intermission.
The game was back and forth in the early going of the second half before a three from Ryan Welty put Northwest in front 41-31 with 14:41 to play. A pair of free throw by
Jakob Lowrance cut the lead to eight, but an 11-0 run gave the Bearcats a 52-33 lead with 10:35 to play in the game.
The Mules kept fighting back and pulled to within nine late at 63-54. Lawrence scored on a three-point play and
Spencer Reaves added one of his own, part of a 16-6 run by the Mules. That was as close as UCM would get though, the Bearcats outscored the Mules 4-0 over the final 3:09 of the game to win by 13.
UCM shot a season-low 36 percent, going just 18-of-50 from the floor and making just 3-of-19 from beyond the arc. Reaves led three Mules in double figures with 15. He added a career-high 12 rebounds for his first career double-double. Lawrence finished with 14 points, while Woodson had 10.
Justin Pitts led all scorers with 18 points, while Chris-Ebou Ndow had a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards. The Bearcats shot 47 percent from the field, going 23-of-49, including 42 percent from three-point range, making 11-of-26 attempts.
The Mules return to action on Monday, facing Missouri Western at 5 p.m. The game has been pushed back from its originally scheduled Saturday date due to the impending ice storm.
