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Story Headlines
- The Northwest Missouri State University men's basketball team defeated the Missouri Western Griffons, 94-60, on Saturday afternoon at Bearcat Arena in Maryville, Mo.
- Northwest improves to 17-2 overall and 9-2 in MIAA play. The Griffons fall to 3-15 overall and 1-10 in conference action.
- The Bearcats shot a school record 68.8 percent (33-for-48) from the field. The previous mark was set at Lindenwood on Feb. 4, 2017, at 67.9 percent.
- Justin Pitts had a game-high 27 points, missing just two shots the entire evening. He had four assists, added three steals, hit four three pointers and grabbed two rebounds.
- Chris-Ebou Ndow had 22 points with a game-high eight rebounds. He became the 12th player in Northwest history to score over 1,000 points with 500 or more rebounds.

Key Northwest Statistics
- Northwest hit 13-of-24 three pointers (54.2 percent), going an incredible 76.9 percent during the second half (10-of-13).
- In the second half, Northwest hit 20-of-25 field goal attempts (80 percent).
- The Bearcats outrebounded the Griffons, 30-13. Northwest's seven offensive rebounds leading to 12 second chance points.
- Missouri Western committed 12 turnovers leading to 22 Bearcat points.
- Northwest led for over 36 minutes of the contest and held a 35 point lead late in the second half.
- The Bearcats were 15-of-21 from the free throw line (71.4 percent).
- Ndow hit four three pointers and added three assists and a steal.
- Joey Witthus was 4-of-5 from the field, finishing with 10 points and five rebounds.
- Xavier Kurth added nine points with three rebounds, three assists and a steal.
- Ryan Hawkins had seven points to go along with three rebounds.

Key Northwest Sequence
- Missouri Western took a pair of early first half leads before Northwest took the lead for good on a Brett Dougherty layup with 15::36 to play. The Griffons managed to pull back to within two at 11-9 with 11:36 remaining. But an 11-2 Bearcat run over a two-minute stretch gave Northwest a cushion it never surrendered. Witthus started the run with a three pointer off a Pitts assists. Pitts then converted a traditional three-point play off a made layup to give the Bearcats a 17-9 lead. After a Griffon basket, Ndow drew a foul and hit a pair of free throws. Pitts then gave Northwest its first double-digit lead by hitting a three off a feed from Dougherty with 9:34 to play in the first half.

Up Next
- Northwest will host Lincoln University on Thursday, Feb. 1, at 7:30 p.m.