Men's Basketball | 3/2/2018 9:37:05 PM

Kansas City, Mo. –  The seventh-ranked Northwest Missouri Bearcats withstood a fiery Pittsburg State squad tonight, but the No 1 seed Bearcats held on to defeat the No. 8 seed Gorillas 79-73 at historic Municipal Auditorium.
 
Northwest (25-3) was led by MIAA Player of the Year Justin Pitts as the senior scored 25 points on 7-14 from the field. Xavier Kurth had 14 points, while Brett Dourgherty scored 12. Chris-Ebou Ndow had 10.
 
Pittsburg State (17-13) had three score in double-figures led by 23 points from Grant Lozoya and 22 from Donovan Franklin.
 
The Gorillas raced out to a 10-3 lead after a steal and dunk from Demetrius Levarity with 14:28 left in the first half. Northwest, however, went on a 12-5 run and tied the game at 15 after a layup from Pitts with 10:26 to go.
 
A three from Kurth with 8:23 on the clock gave Northwest its first lead of the game at 20-17. A jumper from Brett Dougherty made the score 27-26 and a three from Ryan Welty gave the Bearcats a 30-26 lead with 4:07 left. The lead for the Bearcats was three (39-36) with 53 seconds left, but a tip-in from Ryan Hawkins as time expired gave Northwest a 41-36 lead at the break.
 
A pair of free throws from Pitts with 17:53 left gave the Bearcats a 48-41 lead and after the Gorillas got within four, a three from Ndow pushed the lead back to seven (57-50) with 14:09 on the clock.
 
A three from Welty with 4:02 on the clock gave the Bearcats a 70-61 lead and after Pitt had got within five (73-68) two free throws from Pitts pushed the lead back to seven with one minute in the game. The Bearcats made free throws down the stretch to secure the win.
 
Northwest moves on to face the winner of Central Missouri/Central Oklahoma tomorrow evening at 8:15 pm in the semifinals of the tournament.