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Story Headlines
- The Northwest Missouri State University men's basketball team defeated Missouri Western, 74-58, on Saturday afternoon at the MWSU Fieldhouse in St. Joseph, Mo.
- The win moves the No. 1 ranked Bearcats to 19-0 on the year and 11-0 in MIAA play. The Griffons fall to 7-13 overall and 3-8 in conference action.
- Saturday's win marked the 23rd straight MIAA regular season victory for Northwest, already a conference record. It was also the ninth-straight win over Missouri Western.
- Junior Justin Pitts recorded his second career double-double, scoring 13 points with 11 assists. He also added three rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot in the win.
- Senior Zach Schneider hig 7-of-11 from long range to finish with a game-high 23 points. He had three rebounds and was 2-of-2 from the charity stripe.

Key Northwest Statistics
- The Bearcats (20-40) and the Griffons (25-50) each shot 50 percent from the field. Northwest hit 10-of-23 from beyond the arc (43.5 percent) and were 24-of-33 from the charity stripe (72.7 percent).
- Northwest forced 11 Griffon turnovers and outrebounded Missouri Western, 31-24. The Bearcat bench outscored the Missouri Western bench, 23-3.
- Northwest led 43-32 at the half.
- Chris-Ebou Ndow scored 11 points with five rebounds. He was a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.
- Ryan Welty had eight points, going 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. He grabbed a team and career-high six rebounds.
- D'Vante Mosby had six points and five rebounds, four coming on the offensive end.
- Northwest never trailed in the game and led by as many as 21 points in the second half.

Key Northwest Sequences
- Leading 19-13, Schneider keyed a quick run for the Bearcats midway through the first half. After a Griffon basket, Schneider rolled off a screen from Pitts and burried a three pointer from the left corner to make it a 22-13 game. On the next Missouri Western posession, Schneider skied for a defensive rebound in traffic to maintain the nine-point lead. Pitts drew a double team again off a quick screen and a defnsive miscommunication left Schneider wide open for his fourth three-pointer of the half, giving Pitts his sixth assist. After a pair of empty posessions for both teams, Pitts found Mosby for his seventh assist underneath to put Northwest up, 27-13, with 7:30 left to play in the opening half.

- Holding just a one point lead with 15:07 left in the second half, Northwest went on a 14-0 run over the five-plus minutes to take a commanding 21 point lead. A pair of Ndow free throws put the Bearcats up, 48-46, with 14:10 left to play. Schneider would knock down his sixth three pointer of the game coming on Pitts' 10th assist of the ball game. Ndow and Pitts would each contribute two free makes to pus the lead to 56-46. With 9:04 left to play, Ndow nailed a three off a feed from Pitts to make it 59-46. Ndow would cap the run with a pair of makes from the charity stripe with 8:37 left to play.

Up Next
- Northwest will head to Jefferson City, Mo., to take on Lincoln at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 2.