Bearcats Win Season Opener Behind Henry’s 26

MARYVILLE, Mo.—Abby Henry scored a game-high 26 points and dished out five assists to lead Northwest Missouri State in its season-opening win Monday night over Nebraska-Kearney 81-75 inside Bearcat Arena.

The Bearcats scored 26 points off of 29 Loper turnovers in the win. Though UNK scored 46 points in the paint to Northwest’s 26, the Bearcats got 38 points from its bench and hit 10 three-pointers. Kyla Roehrig led the bench with 10 points and hauled in six rebounds in her first career game as a Bearcat.

Gabby Curtis scored 12 points and tied for the team lead with Roehrig with six rebounds. Shelly Martin added 11 points to go along with four rebounds and three steals in the win. Maryville product Meridee Scott had four points, four rebounds and a team-high seven assists in her first collegiate game.

After leading much of the first half, Nebraska-Kearney went on a 14-7 run to end the half and led at the break 35-34. With 14:33 remaining in the game, Northwest went on a 12-2 run over the next three minutes to take a 56-48 lead.

The Lopers would go on an eight-point run of their own a little later on in the period and tied the game at 63 apiece. The turning point of the contest came at the 5:43 mark when Kearney called a timeout from the bench with no timeouts remaining. Martin would hit the two technical foul shots and Henry hit a quick jumper off the inbounds pass to give Northwest a quick four-point lead. The Bearcats then hit back-to-back shots off of fast breaks to give the Bearcats a 72-63 cushion with 4:42 left.

Nebraska-Kearney refused to go away again, this time cutting the Bearcat lead down to 75-73 with 43 seconds remaining. Henry’s runner in the lane would put the Bearcats up by four and after another Loper turnover, the Bearcats salted the game away with a pair of trips to the free-throw line.

The Bearcats hit 13-of-15 from the charity stripe in the game (92.3 percent) while Nebraska-Kearney (0-2) made just 11-of-19 (57.9 percent). With the win, Northwest improves to 11-1 in season openers under head coach Gene Steinmeyer.

The Bearcats will host the Winstead-Reeves Classic this weekend. Northwest will face Southwestern (Kan.) on Friday and will take on William Jewell on Saturday. Both games tip-off at 7:30 p.m.