Bearcats Fall in Overtime in Omaha

OMAHA, Neb.—Dillon Starzl and Shaneel Narayan led five Northwest Missouri State players in double figures with 15 points each. The 15 points are a career-high for Starzl, but it was not enough as the Bearcats fell Saturday night to Nebraska-Omaha 85-80 in overtime.

Starzl went 7-for-10 from the floor and pulled down seven rebounds in the loss. Eight of Narayan’s points came in the extra frame. Elijah Allen recorded his eighth career double-double in the loss, scoring 14 points and hauling down 12 rebounds for Northwest (2-6, 0-4 MIAA).

With the scored tied 71-71, DeShaun Cooper missed a tough, running shot in the lane with three seconds remaining and Tyler Bullock’s heave from just inside half court went off the backboard for the Mavericks (4-4, 1-3 MIAA) sending the game into overtime. Cooper scored 13 points in the loss and tied a career-high with nine assists, its Cooper’s fourth-straight game with six assists or more.

The score went back-and-forth all night with Nebraska-Omaha having the largest lead of the game at 28-22 with 4:32 remaining in the opening half. Northwest would go on a 9-4 run to end the half and were down just one, 32-31 going into the break.

Mitch Albers led the Mavericks with 25 points, while Alex Welhouse had 20. Bullock scored 19 and dished-out seven assists. Arunas Simanavicius was Northwest’s other player in double-figures as he had 10 points before fouling-out late in the second half.

Northwest hit 45.6 percent from the floor and made 7-of-20 from three-point range (35 percent). UNO shot 51 percent from the field and hit 9-of-17 from downtown (52.9 percent). The difference came from the charity stripe, as the Mavericks went 20-for-27 from the free-throw line, while the Bearcats were 11-of-20. Northwest dished-out a season-high 20 assists as a team and committed just 10 turnovers.

The Bearcats will be off until Dec. 18 when they return home for their MIAA home opener against Fort Hays State. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. from Bearcat Arena.