JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Northeastern State RiverHawks (2-10 in MIAA) were 10-24 from 3-point distance for the game but a hot shooting Lincoln Blue Tiger (7-3 in MIAA) run was too much to overcome in a 91-76 loss to close out the Missouri road trip.
The RiverHawks were led by senior
Troy Locke with 16 points and he was joined in double-figures by classmate
Brad Davis with 10 and freshman
Christian Cook tallied 15. The RiverHawks, as a collective group, shot well at 49.1 percent, 10-24 from 3-point range and made a season-best 83.3 percent of their attempts at the free throw stripe.
However, Lincoln matched the shooting effort. It made 80.0 percent through the first six minutes of the game to jump out to a 10-point lead, but Cook willed NSU back into the game. His steal and breakaway, in which he was fouled at the other end, enlivened the RiverHawks with 11:36 remaining. The freshman immediately made sure his presence was known converting an and-1 jumper in front of the Blue Tigers bench the very next possession. Cook had 12 points in the half.
The RiverHawks outscored the Blue Tigers 18-9 across 7:21 in the middle of the first half and forced seven turnovers to knot the game at 27 points apiece with 7:15 remaining. The Blue Tigers, however, responded closing the half on an 18-13 run.
"I thought we fought back well. We've got to start with better energy," head coach
Ja Havens said. "They (Lincoln) took the ball where they wanted to and got us in transition too many times … but credit our guys they came back and chipped into it to make a run in the second half. There were a couple of stretches where they got hot and got away from us."
At halftime, Northeastern State trailed by seven 45-38 and all but one RiverHawk had scored.
Coming out of the locker room NSU was cold from the floor while the Blue Tigers shot 66.7 percent outscoring the RiverHawks 15-4 before head coach
Ja Havens called timeout with 15:31 left to play. Senior
Troy Locke scored the first eight points of the stanza for Northeastern State while Lincoln pulled out to an 18-point lead.
Senior
Brad Davis and Cook interspersed three 3-pointers as they looked to keep pace with Lincoln bringing the RiverHawks within their closest margin of 14 the rest of the way at the 10:42 mark, but the home nets allowed for 7-19 shooting from distance for the Blue Tigers in the second half. Although the Blue Tigers got hot from distance the RiverHawks also did so as well making seven on 12 attempts.
"We shot well enough to win a game at just under 50 percent, but we gave up 50.7 percent and turned it over 19 times and gave up 14 offensive rebounds," Havens said of his team that forced 16 turnovers itself and had six steals.
The Blue Tigers won the battle of the boards by 11 and had 20 fast break points. They were led by Quinton Drayton with 25 points and Cameron Potts notched a triple-double.
Northeastern State returns to the home to host Pitt State Thursday at 7:30 inside the Event Center. It begins the back half of the RiverHawks' schedule.
NOTES:
NSU's bench outscored LU's 33-11 … tenth straight game this season for Davis to score at-least ten points … Locke has scored at least ten in the last eight games …
Payton Guiott scored six points on 2-3 shooting from 3-point land … Devonta Prince, typically known for his aggression in the paint hit two 3-pointers … every RiverHawk scored at least four points.
