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WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The Northeastern State men's basketball team lost 81-62 to No. 3 Central Missouri on CBS Sports Network Saturday morning inside UCM's Multipurpose Building.
 
The RiverHawks fell to 2-8 on the year and 1-3 in the MIAA, while the Mules improved to 11-1 overall and 2-1 in the league.
 
NSU shot 34.5 percent (20-for-58) from the field, 25 percent (6-for-24) from behind the 3-point line and 84.2 percent (16-for-19) at the free-throw line. UCM posted percentages of 59.2 percent (29-for-49) overall, 52.2 percent (12-for-23) from distance and just 44 percent (11-for-25) at the free-throw line.
 
Junior guard Demone Harrison was just 6 of 16 from the field, but he finished with a team-high 20 points. UCM's Rakeem Dickerson led all scorers with 21 points. Jordan Epps added 20 and Dillon Deck contributed 10 off the bench. T.J. White had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
 
The Mules led by as much as 15 in the first half and carried a 32-20 lead into intermission. The RiverHawks kept it near that margin for the first 12 minutes of the second half, but the home team proved too much as UCM built a 22-point lead en route to the 19-point victory.
 
NSU will have one more game before the turn of the calendar, as the RiverHawks will host Central Christian College at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 31 inside the NSU Event Center.

NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH JASON TINSLEY
Opening Statement…
"We're outmanned. It's not an excuse, it's just a fact. But beyond that, we didn't play hard enough to win as evidenced by our 27 hustle plays. Our goal is 55 per game. We wanted to get 25 deflections and we only had 14. This team doesn't know how to share the basketball. When you lose games, players start to worry about themselves and not the team. That's evident by only having six assists. We didn't shoot the ball that well, but we should have had more than six assists. We're going to be in for a long year if we don't stop feeling sorry for ourselves. We're down to nine healthy players, which obviously doesn't help, but that doesn't have anything to do with effort level. We had every chance to cut into the lead midway through the second half, but we had too many bad shots and turnovers. Central Missouri is a good team, and we made too many mistakes."
 
On playing on national TV…
"You can't put a dollar amount on what you have to pay for this type of advertising. It's great for the university being able to be broadcast on national TV. I just wish we would have played better. We were competitive for about 30 minutes, and we couldn't withstand the run they made late in the game. This is a business, and you're graded by wins and losses. We're going to get it fixed one way or another. We hope we can get it fixed this year, but if not then we are going to get it fixed for next year. It was a great opportunity playing on CBS. We're thankful for it. On a positive note, when they look back on their careers, they are going to be able to say they played on national TV. Not too many players at our level get that type of opportunity."
 
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