Game 27: Northeastern State (7-19, 3-14 MIAA) vs. Emporia State (9-17, 4-13 MIAA) at 7:30 p.m. | February 22, 2018
Tahlequah, Okla. | NSU Event Center
The Series
A win on Thursday by the RiverHawks would even the series with the Hornets at 9-to-9. In Tahlequah, Northeastern State holds a 4-3 lead in the series. Inside the NSU Event Center, the RiverHawks are 2-2, and lost Emporia State 68-63 at last time they visited.
The Coaches
Mark Downey was introduced as NSU's tenth men's basketball coach on April 11, 2017 and carries a 211-122 overall head coaching record, with four NCAA Division II Tournament Appearances, and has been named Coach of the Year six times. Downey comes to NSU after two seasons at Fort Wayne (NCAA DI) as the program's top assistant on the bench, and has helped the Mastodons to appearances in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) and the NIT, while going 44-23. Prior to Fort Wayne, Downey spent the 2014-15 season at Bowling Green where they went 20-12, and he helped direct them into the second round of the CIT.
Shaun Vandiver (87-109) is in his seventh season at Emporia State. A first round draft pick by the Golden State Warriors in 1991 he spent ten years as an assistant coach at the NCAA Division I level. As a player he led Hutchinson CC to the 1988 NJCAA National Championship before earning first-team All-Big 8 honors at Colorado.
Last Time Out for NSU
A career afternoon from
Trent Cantrell and
Jamir Andrews' tenth 20-point game was not enough for the RiverHawks on Saturday falling 93-84 to Nebraska-Kearney. Cantrell came off the bench for the RiverHawks to score 18 points, his third straight game hitting double-digit scoring. Andrews had 24 and sank a three-pointer with 3:42 left to get NSU within two (84-82) of the Lopers who would shut the RiverHawks down offensively finishing the game on a 9-2 run. Following Andrews' three pointer, NSU went 0-for-5 from the field, and missed their final four attempts from the arc. NSU's scoring was limited to six players with
Tanner Mouse having 19 points,
Lucas Antunez added 13, and
Montre' Williams scored nine.
Last Time Out for Emporia State
For the tenth time this year Emporia State came down to the final possession of regulation to determine the outcome and for the sixth time the Hornets came up short in a 78-76 loss at Southwest Baptist on Thursday night. Stephaun Limuel led Emporia State with 17 points and eight rebounds and was joined in double figures by Brian Morton with 15 points, Hassan Thomas with 13 and Brandon Hall with 12 points.
1,000 points
On Saturday, Feb. 10,
Montre' Williams was the first NSU men's basketball player since 2014 to score 1,000 career points in a RiverHawks' uniform. Williams has 1,033 career points in 106 games played at Northeastern State. Bryton Hobbs (2012-14) was the last NSU player to hit the scoring milestone, finishing with 1,182 points.
The Graduate
NSU graduate student
Jamir Andrews is averaging 17.1 points a game in MIAA play which seventh best through 16 conference games played. Overall, Andrews has ten games this season where he has scored at least 20-points, and is averaging 22.0 per game in the last five contests.
Up next
Northeastern State will host Washburn on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. for Senior Day to close out the regular season.
