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ST. JOSEPH, Mo.-Northwest Missouri State sophomore point guard DeShaun Cooper scored a career-high 31 points to lead the Bearcats to a 73-69 win against Missouri Western Saturday at Looney Fieldhouse.

Northwest (8-14, 6-12 MIAA) has won four of its last five overall and three straight road contests to keep its MIAA tournament hopes alive. The Bearcats stand two games back of eighth-place Emporia State with four games to go.

Cooper scored seven consecutive Northwest points in the final two minutes to help turn a 65-64 deficit into a 71-67 lead with 23 seconds remaining. He played all 40 minutes, made three 3-pointers and was 12-of-13 from the free-throw line.

P''Allen Stinnett led Missouri Western (9-13, 7-10) with 21 points including a two-handed dunk that cut Northwest''s lead to two, 71-69, with 16 seconds left. He then fouled Arunas Simanavicius, who missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and gave the Griffons a chance at the lead. But Jonathan Phelps had a deep 3-pointer rim out, Kyle Haake rebounded for Northwest and sunk two free throws with 5.2 seconds left to seal the win.

Phelps, the 10th-best three-point shooter in the nation heading into this week''s games, was 1-for-8 from behind the arc, but 5-of-7 inside it and had 18 points.

Haake had 14 points and a career-high nine rebounds to help Northwest win the rebounding edge 38-28. Jake Reinders added nine points including a running three-pointer at the first-half horn that put the Bearcats in front 33-32. It''s the third time Northwest has swept its regular-season series with Missouri Western in the last five seasons.