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Story Headlines
- The Northwest Missouri State University men's basketball team beat Minnesota State, 59-56, on Saturday evening in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
- The Bearcats trailed by as many as 14 in the second half before rallying for the three point win.
- Freshman Justin Pitts tied a career high with 29 points.
- The Bearcats were the fourth-seeded team while Minnesota State was the fifth seed.
- Northwest outscored the Mavericks 34-20 in the second half.
- This is the second straight year the Bearcats and the Mavericks have met in the NCAA Tournament. Northwest beat Minnesota State last season in the second round in Mankato, Minn., 71-66.
 
Northwest Key Statistics
- The Bearcats forced 17 MSU turnovers, 11 coming in the second half.
- Pitts scored 29 points on 13-of-21 shooting. He was 3-of-7 from beyond the arc.
- Lyle Harris scored 12 points off the bench and was 4-of-7 from the charity stripe.
- Conner Crooker played all 40 minutes, scoring eight points on 4-of-9 shooting with a team-high six rebounds.
- Northwest turned the ball over just six times in the game.
- The Bearcats shot 49.1 percent (26-for-53) from the field, hitting 57.7 percent (15-of-26) in the second half.
- Minnesota State was held to just 37.5 percent shooting (6-of-16) in the second half.
- Northwest was outrebounded 34-22.
- Pitts hit all three of Northwest's long range buckets. The team shot just 3-for-10 from beyond the arc on the day.
- Despite not hitting the long range ball, Northwest dominated the paint, outscoring MSU 42-20 down low and had 19 points off turnovers.
- The teams combined for just 29 fouls and there were only a combined 20 free throws taken.
- The Bearcats trailed by as many as 14, 41-27, with 16:56 left in the second half.
- Northwest was outscored
 
Northwest Key Sequences
- Minnesota State's Zach Monaghan hit a layup with four seconds left in the first half to put the Mavericks up by 14, 36-22. But alertly, Northwest inbounded the ball quickly and Justin Pitts launched a three-quarter court shot that hit the backboard and found the bottom of the net. The play was upheld on video review and Northwest went into the locker room down, 36-25.
 
- Three minutes into the second half, Northwest found itself down, 41-27. But The Bearcats responded with a tough 15-4 run to cut the deficit all the way down to three, 45-42, with 10 minutes left to play. Matt Wallace had a couple of defensive stops and hit a couple of tough shots. Lyle Harris found room down the lane and hit two big layups, including an and one. Pitts capped the run with a layup after in the lane for his 24th point.
 
- With 5:50 left in the game, Northwest tied the game, 51-51, on a Connor Crooker layup. The Mavericks took their final lead of the game with 5:07 left on a free throw, 53-51, before Lyle Harris hit a free throw, recorded a steal and hit a layup to put Northwest up by one, 54-53. After a layup from Pitts gave Northwest a 56-53 lead, MSU got a layup from Assem Marei with 38 seconds left. With 16 seconds left, Matt Wallace was called for his fifth foul, sending Monaghan to the line. After hitting the first to tie the game, Monaghan missed the second one. Northwest called a timeout and on the ensuing possession, Crooker drove to his left and hit a contested layup with two seconds left. Minnesota State threw the inbounds pass away and had to foul Harris, who hit one-of-two to give the Bearcats a 59-56 lead. As the buzzer sounded, the Mavericks lifted a three-quarter court shot, similar to Pitts' halftime shot, but the ball hit the back board, fell to the rim and bounced away.
 
Up Next
- Northwest will play top seeded and host Augustana tomorrow in the NCAA second round at 7:30 p.m. in the Sanford Pentagon.