MARYVILLE, Mo. - The No. 2-ranked Northwest Missouri State University men's basketball team won its MIAA opener for the 11th straight year with an 86-74 triumph over the visiting Northeastern State University RiverHawks.

Northwest led for 38:46 of the game and built a lead as large as 26 in the second half. With 5:28 to go in the contest, Northwest led 75-54. The RiverHawks out-scored the Bearcats 20-11 in the final five-plus minutes

Head coach Ben McCollum was pleased with his team's effort for a majority of the contest.

"I thought for the first 35 minutes we played really well," McCollum said. "It was a consistent 35 minutes. Defensively, we were in rhythm. It was a much better game overall than we have played this year. I thought we were pretty clean with things until the final five minutes. We've got to close and finish."

Northwest controlled the glass and recorded 13 offensive rebounds. Northwest won the battle of the boards, 38-23. NSU corralled only three offensive rebounds.

Northwest shot 51.6% from the floor in the game and took advantage of scoring in the paint. Northwest held a 48-24 scoring edge on points in the paint. Northeastern State shot 50.0% from the floor on 25-of-50 shooting.

The Bearcats shot 8-of-27 from three-point land. Trevor Hudgins buried 6-of-11 from distance, but the rest of the Bearcats shot 2-for-16 from three-point land. The RiverHawks could not take advantage of the three-ball by making only 6-of-16 from deep. 

Hudgins led all scorers with 26 points in 33-plus minutes of action. Diego Bernard cashed in with 14 points, seven rebounds, five assists and a steal. 

Wes Dreamer totaled 16 points and seven rebounds, while Luke Waters contributed with 11 points and six rebounds.

Northwest will be back in action Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against the Rogers State Hillcats in Bearcat Arena.

NOTES: Northwest owns a 14-1 lead in the all-time series with Northeastern State ... Northwest has won 13 straight matchups with NSU ... Hudgins moved up to No. 2 on Northwest's all-time scoring list as he surpassed Ryan Hawkins, who tallied 2,098 points as a Bearcat ... Hudgins has scored 2,117 career points and trails only Justin Pitts (2,459 points) on the all-time Northwest scoring chart ... Hudgins had one assist to move within nine of Pitts for the all-time assist lead ... Hudgins has recorded 566 career assists ... Northwest is 104-4 over the past four seasons ... Northwest is 166-9 over the last six seasons.