Northwest Missouri State Bearcats down Washburn Ichabods for MIAA tourney championship

Northwest Missouri State captured the MIAA men’s basketball tournament championship at Municipal Auditorium on Sunday, beating Washburn 84-76 in the title game.

Junior guard Trevor Hudgins led the second-seeded Bearcats (28-5) with 35 points. Luke Walters added 20 and Diego Bernard 11 as Northwest avenged last year’s 69-68 loss to Washburn in the tourney finale.

It’s the third time in four seasons, and sixth overall, that Northwest and Washburn have met for the tournament title. This meeting produced the defending national champion Bearcats’ 10th MIAA tournament championship.

The Ichabods (21-10) trailed by just three at halftime, 38-35, but couldn’t close the gap. Jalen Lewis, with 17 points, was Washburn’s top scorer.

The Ben McCollum-coached Bearcats opened the tournament with a 72-50 quarterfinal win over No. 10 Rogers State, then beat No. 3 Fort Hays State 53-50 in the semifinals.

Northwest, which grabbed the league’s automatic bid back to the NCAA Division II tournament, also won the MIAA tourney as a No. 2 seed in 1989, 2002 and 2008.

Earlier Sunday, No. 2-seeded Fort Hays State (28-3) beat top seed Missouri Southern 48-42 for the MIAA women’s tournament championship and auto-bid to the NCAA Division II tournament.

Fort Hays State’s victory — the lowest-scoring MIAA title game on record — marked its second straight tournament title and snapped a 17-game win streak by Missouri Southern.

This story was originally published March 6, 2022 at 6:38 PM.