The final stretch of the common season is sort of right here for No. 4 Northwest males’s basketball. With solely six video games left earlier than postseason play, the Bearcats will quickly be shifting gears from the common season to the MIAA Tournament March 1-5.
They aren’t fairly there, but, although. Before even the ultimate week of the common season, the Bearcats have one final street journey. For 4 consecutive weeks, Northwest alternated from two house video games one week and two away video games the following. The subsequent two weeks will look a bit totally different, because the crew is about to embark on a four-game street journey.
Senior guard Diego Bernard has performed 82 video games away from Maryville all through his collegiate profession, so he is aware of what to anticipate by now. He additionally is aware of what he stated he wants to do to stay targeted.
“Going into the game knowing that everybody’s against you except for your team that you came with on the bus that you’re on every road trip with,” Bernard stated. “Just feeling like your family is with you going in there. Going in there, nothing matters, just trying to go out of there with a win.”
In the primary week of Northwest’s street journey, the Bearcats (21-2, 14-2 MIAA) will match up with Rogers State (12-10, 8-8 MIAA) Feb. 9 and Northeastern State (10-10, 7-9 MIAA) Feb. 11.
It’ll be the second sport of the season in opposition to the Hillcats and RiverHawks for Northwest. In the primary sport in opposition to Rogers, it was a back-and-forth contest via the primary half till a last-second 3-pointer by junior ahead Wes Dreamer gave the Bearcats a 12-point lead at halftime en route to their 87-65 win within the crew’s first sport of 2023.
Against a crew just like the Hillcats, who’re 10-2 at house in contrast to 2-8 on the street, Northwest coach Ben McCollum stated he expects a a lot more durable matchup in Claremore, Oklahoma, than when Rogers got here to city earlier within the season.
“You just got to handle the physicality,” McCollum stated. “I think understanding that they’re considerably better at home … and so it’s something that you have to be prepared for that what happened here, isn’t going to happen there. You have to compete. We’ll have to make sure we’re ready to go and ready to handle their physicality.”
Northwest blew out Northeastern 79-58 within the two squads’ first assembly of the season Dec. 31. The Bearcats had been led by two 20-point performances from Dreamer and Bernard.
As the second sport of the week for Northwest, the rematch with Northeastern additionally pits one of many high defenses in Division II in opposition to one of many high offenses within the convention.
Prior to the RiverHawks’ sport in opposition to Missouri Western Feb. 9, they’re No. 3 within the MIAA in factors scored per sport with 74.6. They are additionally one of many high groups within the convention shooting-wise, as they’re No. 2 in discipline purpose proportion (49%) — simply behind Northwest’s 52.3% from the sphere — and No. 1 in 3-point proportion (40.7%). However, they’ve been held to beneath 70 factors of their final three video games.
On the opposite facet, the Bearcats boast the No. 2 scoring protection in Division II, permitting 57.3 factors per contest. The ’Cats have held their final seven opponents beneath 60 factors, en route to their seven-game win streak.
“Just trying to not look too far ahead,” Bernard stated in regards to the preparation for the RiverHawks. “Just try to take it one game at a time, and once we go down there, we’ll just try to make it hard for their shooters to get shots off.”
put up credit score to Source link
