Northwest Bearcats men’s basketball is two wins away from undefeated national title

The Northwest Missouri Bearcats’ undefeated season is rolling on to the NCAA Division II men’s semifinals.

Top-seeded Northwest improved to 36-0 with a 55-51 victory over No. 8 seed Mercyhurst on Wednesday in an Elite Eight game at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind.

The Bearcats will face No. 5 seed St. Anslem (26-5) in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Thursday on CBS Sports Network. The championship game is 2 p.m. Saturday on CBS. St. Anslem beat No. 4 seed Nova Southeastern 91-81.

Northwest took its biggest lead of the game, 43-32, on a layup by Trevor Hudgins, who scored a game-high 20 points.

But Mercyhurst (26-8) cut away at the 11-point lead over the final 10 minutes. After Zach Mcintire’s three-point play with 57 seconds left, Northwest only led by three at 49-46.

But Northwest made four free throws, including two by Hudgins, to seal the victory. Ryan Hawkins added 13 points, including 3 of 5 three-point shooting, for the Bearcats, who shot 6 of 19 from three. He also had a team-high seven rebounds.

Jason Massey led Mercyhurst with 17 points and six boards.

This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 5:22 PM.