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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Northeastern State men's basketball team stunned top seed Central Missouri 84-82 in the quarterfinals of the 2014 MIAA Championship Friday afternoon inside Municipal Auditorium.
 
The RiverHawks (16-12), who are seeded No. 9 in the tournament, will face No. 5 seed Central Oklahoma in the semifinals at 6 p.m. March 7. The Bronchos posted an 83-68 victory over No. 4 Fort Hays State in the quarterfinals. The No. 15-ranked Mules (24-5), who are currently the top-ranked team in the Central Region, saw their 10-game win streak snapped and will now wait for the NCAA Championship bracket announcement.
 
Senior guard Bryton Hobbs finished with 31 points to lead all scorers. He poured in 29 of those points in the second half and reached the 30-point plateau for the fifth time this season. Hobbs hit 11 of 12 from the free-throw line and connected on 6 of 10 from downtown. He also tallied nine rebounds, five assists and two blocks in 40 minutes.
 
Junior forward Landon DeMasters added 16 points and junior guard Michael Harmon contributed 11, nine of which came in the first half.
 
Northeastern State shot 44 percent (22-for-50) from the field, 52.2 percent (12-for-23) from downtown and 84.8 percent (28-for-33) at the free-throw line. UCM shot 43.1 percent (28-for-65) from the field, 47.1 percent (8-for-17) from distance and just 60 percent (18-for-30) at the charity stripe.
 
Central Missouri, the regular-season MIAA champions and defending MIAA Tournament champions, was led by Dillon Deck, Preston Brunz and Daylen Robinson, who all finished with 17 points. Charles Hammork added 10 points and 10 rebounds in the losing effort.
 
The contest was a tale of two halves. The first was a defensive slugfest that saw a mere 54 combined points, and the final 20 minutes turned into a shootout. The two teams combined for 112 points in the second half and both scored more than the 54 total tallied in the first half.
 
The first 20 minutes saw five ties and 12 lead changes. Neither team led by more than four points, and it was a triple from Harmon with 1:09 left on the clock that helped NSU take a 29-25 advantage into the locker room. The 25 points for Central Missouri was the fewest scored by the Mules in any half this season.
 
NSU maintained its advantage in the early moments of the second half, but the team could never gain any measurable separation.
 
That was until the 13:08 mark, when Hobbs connected on a 3-point basket that sparked a 14-2 run to give the RiverHawks a 54-40 lead with 10 minutes to play. During that critical run, Hobbs hit three-straight 3's and totaled 11 points.
 
Northeastern State stretched its lead to 61-46 with 8:06 to play, but the top-ranked Mules would not go down quietly.
 
Brunz began to rain 3's, Robinson started attacking the rim and hitting contested jump shots, and Deck started dominating the paint. The RiverHawks did all they could to fend off UCM, but a pair of Brunz triples cut the lead to just 79-76 with 44 seconds remaining.
 
Hobbs and senior forward Marcus Sheppard hit three free throws to extend the lead, but a 3-point basket from Jon Gilliam with 17 seconds to go again cut the NSU lead to just three.
 
Hobbs connected on a pair of free throws with 12 seconds left, and Brunz knocked down his fifth three of the game with seven seconds left to push the score to 84-82. Junior guard Amir Gilliam missed a pair of free throws with five seconds on the clock, but the Mules were never able to get off a final shot as the RiverHawks held on for the upset victory.
 
Scoring Summary
Northeastern State              29        55        84
#15 Central Missouri           25        57        82
 
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH LARRY GIPSON
Opening Statement…
"We've had two very good basketball games against Central Missouri this year. The game in December was much like this. It was a one-point game. They had the ball with a chance to win the game with about two seconds left on the clock. And today obviously was a two-point game that, if you didn't have a rooting interest, I think you would all agree was an excellent college basketball game. It was fun to watch and typical of the MIAA. I was really proud of our kids today and proud of our kids over the last several games. We were in disarray on Feb. 26 against Nebraska-Kearney. We just didn't perform very well. We looked like a team that was dead in the water. A lot of credit goes to our guys for finding their competitive spirit that we knew they had. They have banded together, and it's been a pretty good run. On three consecutive nights, we went into one of the toughest places to play, Fort Hays State, and got a win there. We went over to Washburn and got a win there. And everybody saw this game tonight. I'm really proud of where we are, and we'd like to keep playing more basketball. As most of you know, I have announced my retirement, so every game I get to coach is a real bonus for me. Every game I'm with these young men is a real bonus for me, and I'd like to keep it going."
 
On some key reserve players…
"We talked to the team last night. One of the advantages of coaching 40 years is you've been in about every situation, and I've been in just about every situation there is a coach can be in both good and bad. We really talked to our team about the fact that everybody needed to be ready to play. In every conference tournament and NCAA tournament, there's some dark horse, some kid, that comes off the bench and is somebody that steps up that was least expected. I thought tonight we really got good play out of Amir Gilliam and Keon Littleton, neither one of whom played in the last game. We went with a really short rotation in our last game. As long as we've got guys who are willing to step up and keep battling, I think that gives us a chance. Mike (Harmon) has made some big shots for us this year and has the ability to shoot the basketball. I know coach (Jon) Havens told Bryton (Hobbs) to just trust his jump shot. (Central Missouri) was taking away the drive. It's been a bit of an issue this year when teams zone us or play box-and-1 to try to take away his penetration. I'm really pleased tonight. I thought we trusted our offense when we needed to. We went on a little streak there where we made some shots. It's really tough to defend us when we're making shots that way."
 
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