No.10 Northwestern College picked up its fifth straight win, defeating Midland 86-75 on senior day this afternoon at the Bultman Center.
The Red Raiders improve to 12-4 in the GPAC, 22-4 overall, and remain in third place in the current GPAC standings with two games left in the regular season.
Both
Derek Buysse and
Nathan Wedel scored 24 points and
Riley Francis netted 18 to lead the Red Raiders. Wedel pulled down seven rebounds and dished out seven assists, two off his career high.
An early 10-2 run erased the Red Raiders only deficit of the game as they jumped out to a 10-4 lead. Consecutive three-pointers by Francis and
Colton Kooima extended the Northwestern lead out to 14 (25-11) by the midpoint of the first half and a basket by
Chris Borchers gave the hosts their largest lead of the half, 42-24, with three minutes left. They held a 44-31 advantage at the break.
Northwestern led by as many as 20 (62-42) following a three-pointer by Borchers with 12:06 remaining. Midland made one final push, outscoring NW 22-8, over an eight-minute stretch to make it a two possession game, 70-64. The Red Raiders answered with a three pointer by Francis and a free throws by Wedel as the lead went back up to double digits during the final three-plus minutes.
The Red Raiders shot 46% for the game, 24% (7/29) from beyond the arc, and 79% (19/24) from the free throw line. They held a slight edge, 41-38, on the boards, and limited Midland to just 14% from beyond the arc (3/21).
Isaiah Workman came off the bench to lead Midland with 21 points and seven boards and Ryan Williams recorded a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds.
