Box Score By David Boyce

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - The two worst times to have a "it was one of those days" type of game are postseason and against your rival.

Fortunately for the Northwest Missouri State women's basketball team, it came against its rival Missouri Western Saturday afternoon at the MWSU Fieldhouse.

Despite losing bragging rights with a 68-47 loss to Western, the Bearcats live to play again.

"I don't think we got off the bus," Northwest coach Michael Smith said. "It is a shame that we played uninspired because it was a rivalry game, and also we had a tremendous amount of our fan base make the trip down."

If this would have occurred in the MIAA Tournament, Northwest would have no more opportunities this season to redeem itself.

"We got to come back strong," said junior Annie Mathews, who finished with 14 points."It is not the end, thank God. We don't want to end our season like that. We have two more games. It gives us some hope."

Smith was not happy after the game. In fact, he wanted his players to comment about their performance while he sat outside the locker room.

From the reaction of the players, it was obvious they felt bad about the outcome. Mathews stepped up and answered the questions, not making excuses.

"Honestly, we came out not ready to go," Mathews said. "Our intensity wasn't up. In this league, you can't play from behind and that's what we had to do the rest of the game."

The size of the loss came as a shock. On Feb. 5, Northwest beat Western 50-44.

But the Griffons looked nothing like the team they have been all season, particularly senior guard Tiffanie Abrams, who entered the game just 12 for 53 for 23 percent from three-point range.

Abrams made her first five three-point attempts against Northwest. She finished with 25 points, 19 over her season average.

"We were playing the odds on that," Mathews said. "She was hitting them."

There were many other factors why Northwest dropped its third game in a row and fell to 9-15 overall and 6-11 in the MIAA.

Western, 10-14 and 5-12, came out with high intensity. It took Northwest nearly 15 minutes in the first half to react to it.

The Bearcats scored the first two points of the game and then watched Western score the next 25.

The Griffons were making three-pointers and creating havoc on defense with a full court press.

"They hit a few threes, but that wasn't the difference," Smith said. "The difference was we had another 20-turnover night. We gave up 14 offensive rebounds, which converted to 15, second-chance points. Their bench outscored ours 16-4. They had 27 points off our turnovers. It is just the same song and dance as it has been all season."

It was not until the Bearcats stared at a 32-6 deficit that they started bringing order to the game. They went on a 14-2 run to conclude the first half and get within striking distance at 34-20.

Great free throws shooting by Northwest helped the Bearcats draw closer. They finished the first half by going 8-for-8 from the line.

Northwest gave its fans a brief glimmer of hope at the start of the second Mathews scored, pulling the Bearcats to within 12 at 34-22.

Those hopes were dashed quickly when senior Jallisa Lewis drilled a three-pointer. Alex Saxen added a basket, pushing the Griffons lead to 39-22.

The Bearcats never challenged the rest of the game.

Northwest has two games left in the regular season to return to form that recently led to four straight wins instead of the one that is now mired in a three-game losing streak.

The Bearcats return to action Wednesday against Southwest Baptist. It will be the final regular-season home game for seniors Meridee Scott and Monique Stevens.

"We definitely want to play hard for them," Mathews said. "A lot is riding on our last two games. Our next game is a big one, for sure."