Northwest Missouri State takes MIAA men’s title; Missouri Southern women defeat UCM

Northwest Missouri State lost its eight-point lead and then some in the MIAA Men’s Basketball Championship on Sunday at Municipal Auditorium. The Bearcats then rode history and Diego Bernard to a net-cutting ceremony.

Northwest defeated Central Oklahoma 61-53 in a tense contest to capture its seventh conference tournament title in the last eight years. It was the program’s 21st straight MIAA victory at Municipal Auditorium — and the Bearcats have now won 62 of their past 63 games on a neutral floor.

That last distinction means Northwest has won a load of NCAA Tournament games, and that path starts this weekend. The regional bracket will be announced on Sunday night with the Bearcats, who have won the last three NCAA Division II titles, expected to serve as host.

Northwest would have been an NCAA Tournament team no matter Sunday’s outcome, but Bernard made sure it happened with a trophy.

The Bearcats lead was 49-48 with 3 1/2 minutes remaining, when Bernard, the MIAA player of year, made his first field goal of the game, a fadeaway in the paint.

Central tied it, but freshman guard Bennett Stirtz, scored inside to give the Bearcats the lead. Bernard scored the next six points as Northwest started to pull away.

“We didn’t play our best, I didn’t play my best, but we came together and got a win,” Bernard said.

It had been an uneven game for Bernard, who sat for about five minutes in each half to, as coach Ben McCollum said, “reset.”

But Bernard’s final flourish was the difference and earned him the designation of the tournament’s most outstanding player.

Others made big contributions. Stirtz, the former Liberty High standout, finished with 20 points, and his driving one-handed dunk in the second half was the game’s highlight moment. It came during a stretch when Northwest, which led by eight at halftime but had fallen behind by five with 10 minutes to play, needed a charge.

Also big in the comeback stretch were three-pointers on successive possessions by forward Wes Dreamer, who finished with 14.

It added up to another championship for second-ranked Northwest, 30-2, which actually debated whether to cut the nets. The women’s championship game was soon scheduled to begin on the same floor and McCollum wanted to be sure the teams would have enough time to warm up. He got the nod and the ladder and scissors were brought in.

“You have to cut ‘em because you don’t know how often it’s going to happen,” McCollum said.

At Northwest Missouri, they know the drill.

Missouri Southern women capture MIAA tournament, head to NCAA regional play

The MIAA Women’s Basketball Championship could hardly have started worse for Missouri Southern. The Lions missed 10 of their first 11 shots and fell behind Central Missouri by 12 late in the first quarter.

Then came the heat check.

Four different players buried three-pointers over the next few minutes spanning the first and second quarters. The fifth-seeded Lions not only climbed back but roared ahead, all the way to a 78-63 triumph Sunday over the second-seeded Jennies at Municipal Auditorium.

The MIAA tourney title was the third in program history and first since 1996. It automatically delivers Missouri Southern, 27-6, to the NCAA regional. Pairings will be announced on Sunday night.

Guard Lacy Stokes wasn’t among the players whose early triples ignited the rally but she did nearly everything else in the tournament for the second-seeded Lions on her way to being named the event’s most outstanding player.

Sunday, Stokes finished with 15 points and nine assists. That followed her 28-point performance over top-seeded Nebraska-Kearney in the semifinals.