TAHLEQUAH – Caleb Smith matched his career-high as the RiverHawks pushed their win streak to four with a convincing 79-63 win over Central Missouri Saturday inside the NSU Event Center. 

With eight games remaining, NSU matched its win total from last season to move to 14-6 overall and 7-4 in MIAA play. 

Smith scored 30-points for the second time this season after going 8-for-14 from the field and 5-for-6 at the arc. Josh Ihek matched his season-best with 13, and Iain McLaughlin was a point short of a double-double with ten boards and nine points.

"This was a good win for us, that team (UCM) is capable," said head coach Mark Downey.  "They (UCM) made shots in the first half and are really capable of scoring the ball when they make shots like that."  

"It was a good team effort for us; we had a lot of guys perform.  Caleb got 30 for us and made some big plays, and Kendrick (Thompson) was sharing it and distributing the ball really well.  We didn't guard really well in the first half, but in the second half, we really brought it.  We outrebounded them by close to 20, so it was a great performance on the glass for us."

Riding the hot hands of Caleb Smith in the opening minutes to the RiverHawks quickly pulled out to a 19-7 lead on the Mules. UCM found its offense at the arc and dropped six on the RiverHawks by the midway marker in the half and pulled themselves within a pair.  The RiverHawks traded daggers with the Mules at the arc, with both teams nailing nine by the intermission.  Smith was a perfect 5-for-5 from downtown and already had 21-points.  Thanks to a cold spell by UCM to close out the half where they went scoreless for the final three minutes, the RiverHawks took at 46-38 lead into the locker room.

The shooting cooled in the second half for both teams, but a run of ten unanswered points by NSU gave them enough breathing room on the Mules.  After draining nine treys in the first half NSU went 0-for-5. Ihek scored 11 of his 13 points in the final 20 minutes.

The RiverHawks finished the night with 39 rebounds and shooting 51.9-percent from the field. Kendrick Thompson was limited to five points but dished out six assists.

Saturday's loss drops the Mules to 7-11 overall and 2-7 in league play.

Northeastern State will play six of their next eight games on the road, starting with a trip to Joplin to face Missouri Southern. 

"We just have to take things one at a time, we have a really tall order on Wednesday," added Downey.  "Missouri Southern is really good, and they're going to be mad we beat them last time we played them in here and now we have to go to their place."

"They're good, I mean they're national championship good, so hopefully we'll continue to take things one day at a time and prepare ourselves well for this upcoming road game and see what happens."

Tip-off this Wednesday is set for 7:30 p.m.