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By David Boyce

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - The only time Northwest Missouri State's men's basketball team trailed against rival Missouri Western was the opening minute.
 
The Griffons gave their fans at the Missouri Western Fieldhouse Wednesday evening a brief moment to dream about beating the No. 1 team in the NABC coaches top 25. Western scored the first five points in the game.
 
But Northwest quickly showed the Griffons that life in the rugged MIAA against the reigning Division II national champions is much harsher than a pleasant dream. The Bearcats scored 13 of the next 15 points and never trailed again, winning 74-60.
 
"It is rivalry week," said senior Chris-Ebou Ndow, who finished with 15 points. "It is a big win. We knew they were going to come ready. Their record does not show how good they are. They didn't back down. Even though we are the No. 1 team, they gave us a really tough game. We needed that to test ourselves."
 
Northwest had to put on its hard hat and give an old-fashion blue collar effort to pull out its ninth victory of the season and improve to 3-0 in the MIAA. And Western definitely didn't play like a team that dropped to 3-7 and 1-2.
 
"The second half we came out and was able to turn it around a little bit possession by possession," Northwest coach Ben McCollum said.
 
Nothing came easy for the Bearcats. It took a nice drive by senior Justin Pitts and a pass to senior Xavier Kurth for a layup to give Northwest a 49-40 lead with 12 minutes, 17 seconds left in the game.
 
Team basketball always cures offensive stagnation.
 
A few minutes later, a basket by Pitts gave Northwest a double-digit lead at 53-42. Northwest finally got some separation when it led 53-45 lead. It started with a long three-pointer from Pitts. A few seconds later, Pitts hit one of two free throws on a technical foul. Pitts finished with 24 points.
 
The dagger followed. It came from freshman Ryan Hawkins, who drilled a three-pointer to push Northwest's lead to 60-45 with 7:40 remaining.
 
"JP draws so much attention that we get kick out threes in rhythm. They are the easiest shots," said Hawkins, who finished with nine points.
 
"It is nice to be able to come of the bench and provide a little bit of a spark, not only defensively, but offensively, too."
 
Once the Bearcats built a 15-point lead, they were never threatened again. Still, Northwest needed to work much harder against its rival than the previous two MIAA games that were basically decided in the first half.
 
"I thought we got enough stops," McCollum said. "We put a bunch of stops together in a row and that is how you make a run on a team. I was proud of that.
 
"I still felt we never gave the effort we wanted. We got a lead and just wanted them to go away. It is important our guys learn from this and get ready for Central Missouri."
 
The game definitely had rivalry intensity, just like Sunday's game at Central Missouri will have the same feel.
 
"Three technical fouls (two for Western and one for Northwest)," Hawkins said with a smile about the Western game. Let's go for it. It is fun."
 
In the first half, the Bearcats needed to fight hard to stay ahead and go into halftime with a slim 36-32 lead. It was obvious the Griffons weren't going to get blown out on their court.
 
Northwest used back-to-back three-pointers Hawkins and Pitts to break a 7-7 tie. Northwest's biggest lead was 18-11 on a basket by Ndow.
 
"Our defense helped," Ndow said. "We didn't play as well as we wanted offensively and defensively, but we did just enough to stay in the game in the first half. We knew we were going to finish fine in the second half."
 
Every time it appeared the Bearcats were about to take control of the game, Western battled back. The Griffons used defense and a few timely shots to close to 26-25.
 
The one thing Northwest did well in the first half was create turnovers. The Griffons had 11 compared to zero for Northwest. The miscues meant Western took 10 fewer shots than Northwest.
 
It was good thing Western only attempted 18 shots because the Griffons were making them, hitting 10 from the field and shooting 56 percent.
 
The ball wasn't falling as well for the Bearcats, who went 11 for 28 from the field for 39 percent.
 
"The defensive was tremendous," Hawkins said. "We were turning them over. It is not going to show on film, but we made them go to their second and third reads; it is huge when you have good ball pressure like that."