EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Northwest Missouri State University men's basketball team secured a spot in the 2022 NCAA Division II national championship game with a 70-57 victory over No. 8-seeded Black Hills State University at the Ford Center.
 
Northwest (33-5 overall) had all five starters in double-figure scoring and used a 17-2 run in the second half to end the Yellow Jackets season in the national semifinals.
 
The Bearcats will play for the program's fourth national title Saturday at 2 p.m. against No. 3-seeded Augusta University. Northwest will be looking to become the first NCAA Division II school to win three consecutive men's basketball national championships.
 
Wes Dreamer shouldered the brunt of the work in the first half in helping Northwest to a 36-26 lead the break. Dreamer scored 11 points and collected eight rebounds in the first 20 minutes. Luke Waters started the game 0-of-7 from the floor, but he finished the half by making four of his last five field goals to produce a nine-point scoring half.
 
Black Hills State held a five-point lead at 17-12 with 10:41 to play. Northwest hit the Yellow Jackets with an 18-5 run to take a 30-22 lead with 2:04 left in the half. Waters scored a bucket with :54 left and Dreamer tipped in a shot to beat the first-half buzzer to give the Bearcats a 10-point cushion at the break.
 
Isaiah Jackson began the half with a basket for Northwest as the Bearcats stretched its lead to 12 at 38-26. However, Black Hills State countered with an 11-3 run to trim Northwest's lead to 41-37 with 13:42 to play in the game.
 
The Bearcats pulled away with a 17-2 spurt to turn a 43-39 advantage into a 60-41 lead with 7:29 to play. Junior guard Trevor Hudgins began the run with a three-pointer and redshirt freshman guard Mitch Mascari capped the spurt with a triple of his own.
 
Northwest would lead by as many as 21 points at 64-43 after another Mascari triple as the shot clock buzzer went off with 5:45 to play.
 
Waters led all Bearcat scorers with 17 points on 7-of-16 shooting. Waters finished the game making seven of his final nine shots from the floor.
 
Dreamer collected his eighth career double-double and his third of this year's NCAA Tournament with his 11-point, 12-rebound performance. It is Dreamer's fifth double-double this season.
 
Diego Bernard stuffed his stat sheet with 13 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals. It was Bernard's 95th career reaching double figures in scoring.
 
Jackson secured his sixth double-figure scoring game this season with 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor. Jackson also grabbed five boards.
 
Hudgins posted his 130th career double-figure scoring contest with 11 points. Hudgins added six assists, two rebounds and two steals.
 
NOTES: Northwest improved to 4-0 in NCAA national semifinal games … Northwest moved its NCAA Tournament record to 39-20 … Northwest has won 16 straight NCAA Tournament games … the Bearcats have won 23 of their last 24 NCAA Tournament games … head coach Ben McCollum is 28-5 in NCAA Tournament games … the starting backcourt of Trevor Hudgins and Diego Bernard are a perfect 16-0 in NCAA Tournament matchups … ... Northwest has won 54 of its last 55 neutral court games ... Northwest is 131-8 over the past four seasons ... Northwest is 192-13 over the last six years ... when the Bearcats hold an opponent to 59 points or less, head coach Ben McCollum has guided Northwest to a mark of 148-5 in his 13-year career … Hudgins has scored 2,798 career points in 138 career games ... Hudgins needs 21 more points to equal the MIAA's all-time scoring mark of 2,819 points set by UCM's Bill Fennelly (1977-81) ... Hudgins has scored 866 points this season, which ranks as the third-best single-season total in MIAA history ... Hudgins knocked in two three-pointers to take his season total to 163, which ranks as the second-most by an NCAA Division II player (Alex Williams, Sacramento State - 167 made three-pointers in 1987-88) in a single season ... Hudgins ranks No. 5 all-time on the NCAA Division II all-time three-point field goals made list with 430 ... Hudgins needs one more three-pointer to equal the fourth-most three-pointers made (431) by Pfeiffer's Tony Smith (1989-92) ... Northwest is in the midst of a 10-game winning streak … Northwest has won the national championship each of the three times it has played in the title game (2017, 2019, 2021) … with 6:31 to play, BHSU's Tommy Donovan suffered a gruesome ankle injury that paused the action for about 10 minutes