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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Northeastern State men's basketball team lost 61-60 to Central Oklahoma in the semifinals of the 2014 MIAA Championship Saturday evening inside Municipal Auditorium.
 
The No. 9-seeded RiverHawks (16-13) saw their season come to a close, while the No. 5-seeded Bronchos (20-9) move on to face either No. 2 seed Northwest Missouri State or No. 3 seed Missouri Southern State at 3:30 p.m. March 9 for the conference championship.
 
Larry Gipson coached his final game for Northeastern State, as he announced his retirement on Feb. 16. He ends his historic career with an overall record of 565-361 as a collegiate head coach, and he finished his 17-year run at NSU with a record of 280-201.
 
Senior guard Bryton Hobbs led the RiverHawks with a game-high 28 points. He hit six 3-point baskets and also added six rebounds, six assists and three steals. Hobbs ended his two-year career at NSU with 1,182 points. He led the MIAA in scoring this season with a 23.1 ppg average. Senior forward Marcus Sheppard ended his career with a 10-point, five-rebound, four-assist performance.
 
NSU shot 40.8 percent (20-for-49) from the field, 44.8 percent (13-for-29) from behind the 3-point line and 63.6 percent (7-for-11) at the free-throw line. UCO shot 46.2 percent (24-for-52) overall, 29.4 percent (5-for-17) from downtown and 80 percent (8-for-10) at the line.
 
Josh Gibbs finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds, while Aaron Anderson added 16 points from the Bronchos.
 
Central Oklahoma jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead, and the Bronchos stretched their lead out to eight points at 22-14 after NSU battled back within one. The RiverHawks stayed steady and eventually were able to tie the game at 29-29 with 20 seconds left in the first half, but a put-back from Anderson at the buzzer gave UCO a 31-29 halftime advantage.
 
The Bronchos again went ahead by eight at 43-35 at the 14:04 mark, but Northeastern State used a 14-1 run to take a 49-44 lead with 10:04 to play. A three from Cal Andrews and a layup from Philip Brown cut the NSU lead down to one, but another quick 5-0 spurt from the green and white put them on top 55-49 at the 6:52 mark.
 
NSU maintained the six-point advantage all the way until the 3:07 mark, when back-to-back three's from Jarred Bairstow and Andrews tied the game at 57-57.
 
Hobbs hit a three with 1:27 left, but Gibbs got an offensive rebound and tip-in to make the score 60-59 in favor of the RiverHawks on UCO's next possession. Hobbs missed a three on NSU's next time down the floor, and another offensive rebound from Gibbs with 4.8 seconds remaining would spell doom for Northeastern State.
 
He corralled a missed shot and was fouled on the put-back attempt, and e calmly sank both free throws to put UCO on top. A contested Hobbs three at the buzzer would not draw iron as the Bronchos earned the victory.
 
Scoring Summary
Northeastern State              29        31        60
Central Oklahoma                31        30        61
 
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH LARRY GIPSON
Statement…
"This is a tough pill to swallow because I thought, at the very minimum, we played even with this team. It's a game that could have gone either way. Unfortunately for us, it didn't go the way we wanted. We emphasize in our program that most games in our league are decided by three to five possessions. Certainly, this was one of those games that could have gone either way. (Central Oklahoma) came up with one more point than us and my hats off to them. I wish them the best of luck in the championship game tomorrow. They're a very good offensive team, led by Josh Gibbs. I think he's a handful. His size and skill package make him an elite player in our league and he's difficult to deal with. I'm really proud of our kids. From the middle of January through the middle of February, we hit a really rough stretch. We didn't play very well. We didn't perform very well as a team. We found our footing in late February and got some wins. As evidenced by tonight and yesterday's performance, we were a tough basketball team to beat. That's all you can do as a team and as a coach is put yourself in a position where you are very difficult to beat. We've been very difficult to beat as of late."
 
-GoRiverHawksGo.com-