TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Northeastern State men's basketball team cruised to an 88-62 triumph over Missouri Western State in a huge MIAA clash Thursday night inside the NSU Event Center.
The win lifted the RiverHawks (7-14, 6-11 MIAA) into 12th place in the current league standings, and they are also now just two games back of seventh place. NSU leapt the Griffons (8-16, 6-12), who slipped back into 13th. The top 12 teams qualify for the 2016 MIAA Championship at the end of the regular season.
The margin of victory was the highest for NSU against a conference opponent since back on Feb. 14, 2004, when the then-Redmen defeated East Central 86-52 as members of the Lone Star Conference.
Senior forward
Dakota Caudill paced the green and white with his fourth double-double in the last six games. He finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Senior guard
Trey Mohair tallied 15 points and nine assists, while sophomore guard
Montre' Williams poured in 19 points with the help of a career-best 10-for-10 effort at the free-throw line.
NSU posted a 49.2 percent (29-for-59) shooting percentage overall, while shooting 34.5 percent (10-for-29) from behind the arc and an 83.3 percent (20-for-24) effort at the free-throw line. MWSU shot 33.9 percent (19-for-56) overall, 33.3 percent (8-for-24) from distance and 76.2 percent (16-for-21) at the charity stripe.
Aaron Emmanuel finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds for the losing side, while Trey Sampson had 12 points and Miles Wentzien contributed 11 points.
Northeastern State led in rebounding (37-34), assists (19-10), blocks (10-0), steals (6-4), points in the paint (36-18), points off turnovers (21-6), fast-break points (5-4), bench points (38-20), and fewer turnovers (10-15). Missouri Western State led in second-chance points (7-6).
The RiverHawks are now set for their toughest test of the year, as they prepare to play host to No. 23 Northwest Missouri State at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 13. The Bearcats (18-5, 15-3 MIAA) are riding high on the strength of an eight-game win streak.
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH JASON TINSLEYOpening Statement…"Everybody that played tonight brought something positive to the game. We did a lot of good things. Even the guys who didn't score a lot found ways to be productive. We outrebounded them and we blocked 10 shots. We had 19 assists on 29 field goals. We had a good week of practice. Two of our biggest keys were taking away dribble penetration and not to let (Aaron Emmanuel) get going. We did both of those things very well tonight. Our second half was a pretty dominating performance against a very good team. This is a good team. They beat Lindenwood. There are no nights off in this league. No. 14 can beat No. 1 on any given night. I'm proud of our guys. I'm proud of their effort. Now we have to get ready to play the best team in our league on Saturday."
On the Big 3 (Dakota Caudill, Trey Mohair, Montre' Williams) combining for 54 points…"(
Dakota Caudill) is making a habit of getting these double-doubles now. He did not have any prior to this year and he's got five now. He's our post presence scoring the basketball. He understands that he has to be our go-to guy in the post. He can score inside and out because he's got good hands around the basket and he has a great jump shot. Trey (Mohair) runs the point for us. It took him awhile to get it going for us. He had a little stretch there in the middle of the season where he wasn't making shots. Now he's making up for it. He's not a volume shooter, but he's getting people involved and he's taking care of the basketball. Montre' (Williams) is a very capable scorer. He can be an explosive scorer. He hasn't figured it out yet, but he's the kind of player that can score 30 on any given night. I don't think he knows that he can do that yet. Those guys carry the load scoring-wise, but we had a lot of other guys pitch in as well."
-GoRiverHawksGo.com-
