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TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Northeastern State men's basketball team halted a five-game losing skid with a 67-57 victory over Emporia State Wednesday night inside the NSU Event Center.
 
The RiverHawks improved to 4-13 overall and 2-8 in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, while the Hornets dropped to 9-9 on the year and 2-7 in the MIAA.
 
Junior forward Dakota Caudill posted a career-high 20 points for the second-consecutive game. He finished 8 of 14 from the field, while adding five rebounds in 27 minutes. Senior guard Keon Littleton came off the bench and registered 16 points and five steals. Junior guard Trey Mohair played all 40 minutes and filled the stat sheet with seven points, four assists, four steals, three rebounds and one block.
 
NSU shot 51.1 percent (24-for-47) from the field, which marked the third time this year the RiverHawks shot at least 50 percent in a contest. They also boasted a 50-percent scoring clip (8-for-16) from downtown and a 78.6 percent (11-for-14) margin at the free-throw line. ESU shot 39.1 percent (18-for-46) overall, which was the second-lowest percentage shot against Northeastern State this season. The Hornets also shot 37 percent (10-for-27) from distance and 78.6 percent (11-for-14) at the line.
 
Micah Swank led Emporia State with 19 points, but the rest of the visiting starters combined for just 20 points total.
 
The opening 10 minutes of play was back and forth, and the visitors were able to take a marginal 14-12 advantage into the second media timeout of the first half.
 
A dunk from Caudill at the 8:52 mark sparked an 8-0 run over the next four minutes that put NSU on top by six, and the RiverHawks held that lead until a three from Swank at the buzzer gave the home side a 28-25 halftime lead.
 
A quick 6-0 run in the early parts of the second half gave Emporia State a 34-32 lead, but Northeastern State converted on a pair of buckets on its next two possessions and never trailed again.
 
The Hornets were able to keep the game within reach for the majority of the second half, but a 7-0 run late by NSU put away the visitors and allowed the RiverHawks to secure the 10-point triumph.
 
NSU dominated the points in the paint (26-14), points off turnovers (20-8) and steals (12-5). The RiverHawks also had fewer turnovers (9-18) and finished with more assists (17-13) and more bench points (24-18). The Hornets outrebounded NSU 33-22.
 
Northeastern State will look to build its first win streak of the year when Washburn comes to town. NSU and WU will do battle at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 24 in Tahlequah.
 
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH JASON TINSLEY
Initial statement...
"It is hard to scratch out wins in this conference. We've been working our guts out to be competitive and get a win. This was a good win. Emporia State has some impressive wins. Up until tonight, our one conference win was against Lindenwood, who is winning the league right now. There is so much parity in the league that you have to be ready to play, focused and you have to do everything right. Tonight, we did some good things."
 
On the approach to the game...
"We just had our normal routine. I'm think motivation is important, but I think that rah-rah type speeches wear off after a couple of minutes of game play. You've got to be better at what you do than they are at what they do. We've been doing some different things in our zone leading up to this game. We put in a couple of new wrinkles and that helped us tonight. We've been doing a good job all season getting the ball inside, but we haven't been able to score. Tonight, we not only got the ball inside, we reaped the rewards of that. We scored 26 points in the paint which is something we haven't been able to do before. There's three things you have to do to give yourself a chance to win. You have to outrebound your opponent, keep them to a field goal percentage of below 45 and you have to shoot above 45 percent. Tonight we did two of the three. We held them to 39 percent and we shot 51 percent. There's no secrets to this. It is a pretty simple thing, but sometimes it's hard to get done. We were able to get it done tonight and we came away with a win."
 
On moving forward...
"We're going to keep things the same. We have to play seven guys. Trey Mohair played 40 minutes and we'll keep riding these ponies until the end. We'll keep trying to get better at the zone and try to get better at our offensive sets. There's no need to change things, we just have to keep getting better at it."
 
On gaining confidence...
"This win gave the guys confidence that they can beat teams at this level. Emporia State has some good wins, so that's a confidence booster because we beat a good team that has beaten other good teams. Our margin for error is as thin as a sheet of paper. There's no shame in that, but we've got to come to terms with that and get better. This is a good confidence builder for us and hopefully we can feed off of this and get a little momentum going. We would like to give ourselves a chance to win every night out. We've given away some games by not closing them. Hopefully now we're figuring out how to close out a game and win it."
 
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