The defending national champion Northwest Missouri State Bearcats moved one step closer to a title repeat after an improbable come from behind victory Tuesday night. Northwest overcame an 11-point deficit with 3:01 to play and posted a 91-86 overtime victory over Northern State University to advance to the program’s fifth Elite Eight.
“You probably won’t see a better college basketball game this year,” McCollum said. “We got a little lucky and came away with a big win. I can’t say enough about the heart of our kids. We were not done and we kept battling. It was fun.”
Trevor Hudgins scored 27 of his 29 points in the second half and OT including a personal 8-0 spurt that cut NSU’s lead from ten down to two late. His three-pointer with five seconds to play tied the game at 79-79 to send it into overtime.
The Truman State Men’s Basketball team is headed back to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1999 as they defeated Michigan Tech 65-62 on Tuesday night. Truman was down 49-42 with just under eight minutes to play, but Truman went on a 9-0 run to take the lead. Twice MTU tied the game and took a 59-58 lead in the final minute before the Bulldogs pulled it out.
The Bulldogs will join Northwest Missouri State, West Texas A&M, Flagler, Colorado School of Mines, Lincoln Memorial, Daemen and West Liberty. The eight remaining teams will be reseeded before playing the Elite Eight next week.
