Northwest Notebook: No. 5 Bearcats avoid rare losing streak
Jan. 26—MARYVILLE, Mo. — Northwest Missouri State men's basketball win against Newman kept alive an impressive streak.
The No. 5-ranked Bearcats, who lost at then-No. 18-ranked Central Oklahoma last Thursday, have not dropped consecutive games since December 2015, before any of their current players were on the roster.
The streak spans 207 games.
They've done it twice this season — after their early non-conference loss to Sioux Falls in the Central Region Challenge and then this past week after the now-No. 9-ranked Bronchos handed the Bearcats just their second loss of the year.
"We're fortunate enough to have experience. So they're able to grind through it and still win basketball games regardless," Northwest head coach Ben McCollum said.
But it hasn't been an easy road garnering a 17-2 overall record and 10-1 mark in MIAA play.
Northwest has dealt with COVID-19 issues the past month, similar to other teams across the league, but McCollum said his team has felt the impact.
"It affects your rhythm shockingly, and we're still trying to get that back. But we will. There's a mental toughness standpoint. I think we're pretty mentally tough and we've gotten tougher through this last couple of weeks," McCollum said.
Undergoing COVID-19 protocols soon after Christmas and then hitting the road, McCollum said the Bearcats haven't had a "legit" practice since before their school break.
"We haven't practiced for two weeks," McCollum said. "You just do pregame practices or whatnot. ... You develop a lot of bad habits when you don't practice, and so we need to get back to our habits defensively and offensively and I think this week will be good for that."
As the Bearcats look to get back on track with a two-game homestand this week, McCollum hopes sophomore forward Wes Dreamer will return.
The Bearcats' second-leading scorer and top rebounder exited the Central Oklahoma game three minutes in with an injury and didn't play at Newman last Saturday.
"I think he's doing OK. I think he'll be hopefully back Thursday, but we'll find out as practice goes," McCollum said.
With only nine loses in the last six seasons under McCollum at the helm, Northwest feels poised for success.
"I think at times, we just got to maintain our physicality because we're going to take everybody's best shots," McCollum said. "We just need to make sure that we initiate some of that physicality and really play like I know we can throughout the year."
The Bearcats host Lincoln (1-13, 0-9) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Bearcat Arena.
Northwest women look to protect Bearcat Arena
The Northwest Missouri State women's basketball team (13-5, 8-4) is set to defend its home floor at Bearcat Arena against Lincoln (5-13, 1-11) at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Central Missouri (14-6, 10-3) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Northwest has produced a mark of 8-2 at Bearcat Arena this season. The eight home wins are the most victories in Bearcat Arena since Northwest went 8-8 at home in the 2013-14 season.
Bearcats to compete at Jayhawk Classic in Lawrence
The Northwest Missouri State indoor track and field teams will travel to Lawrence, Kansas, on Friday for the 2022 Jayhawk Classic at the Anschutz Sports Pavilion.
Friday's meet will get underway at noon. The Bearcat women's team is ranked No. 14 in the USTFCCCA's Track & Field Rating Index.
In the USTFCCCA's Central Regional rankings, the Bearcat women are No. 5 and the men are No. 8.
Micaela Dea can be reached at micaela.dea@newspressnow.com.
Follow her on Twitter: @NPNowDea
