ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - The No. 1-ranked Northwest Missouri State University men's basketball team used a second-half surge to post a season-opening 68-55 victory over No. 15-ranked Northern State at the 2021 Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic held at Civic Arena.

Northwest out-scored Northern State in the second half, 42-25, to turn a 30-26 halftime deficit into a victory. 

For the 52nd time in his Bearcat career Trevor Hudgins surpassed the 20-point mark with 22 points. Hudgins tallied 16 of his 22 points in the second half, including 4-of-8 three-point field goals.

Wes Dreamer notched his fourth career 20-point scoring game with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the floor. Dreamer knocked in four three-pointers to tie for the team-high with Hudgins.

Diego Bernard stuffed his stat sheet with 14 points, eight rebounds, four steals and four assists.

Northwest opened up the game with a 13-4 lead. However, Northern State used a 16-3 spurt of its own to take a 20-16 lead with 6:58 to play in the opening half. The Wolves pushed the margin to eight at 30-22 when Bearcat head coach Ben McCollum called a timeout. The Bearcats scored the final four points of the half and trailed by four at the break.

Dreamer came out firing in the second half and knocked in back-to-back triples to put the Bearcats back on top, 32-30, with 18:45 left in the game. After an NSU triple from Sam Masten cut the Bearcat lead to 42-41, Northwest went on a 9-0 run that was started by a Bernard triple and capped with a Hudgins three-pointer with 7:38 to play. Hudgins added two more buckets to extend the run to 14-2 as Northwest took a 56-43 advantage with 5:33 on the clock. NSU would not get the lead under double digits the rest of the way as the Bearcats closed out the 68-55 win.

Northwest (1-0 overall) will return to action Sunday at 5:30 p.m. against No. 21-ranked Seattle Pacific (1-0 overall) at Civic Arena. Seattle Pacific scored a 77-71 win over Alabama-Huntsville on Saturday.

NOTES: Northwest has won 44 consecutive games on neutral courts ... Northwest has won 20 straight games in St. Joseph ... Northwest is 5-1 all-time vs. Northern State ... the Bearcats improved to 98-3 over the past four seasons ... Diego Bernard corralled eight rebounds to move past Rick Jolly to No. 8 on Northwest's all-time rebounding chart with 588 rebounds in his career ... head coach Ben McCollum collected his 301st career victory moving within one win of A.J. McDonald, who tallied 302 wins at then-Southwest Missouri State and ranks No. 8 on the MIAA's all-time wins chart for coaches.