The men’s basketball team returned to Moody Saturday afternoon after losing on the road against Central Arkansas and beat Northwestern state 76-72.
The Wildcats shot an impressive five-of-nine from behind the arc in first half and made 14-of-33 field goals for a 42 percent clip.
The men were able to jump out to a 17-7 lead by the 11:43 mark of the first half, however, Northwestern went on a 7-0 run at that point to cut it to a three-point lead.
The Wildcats were able to out score Northwestern 19-11 for the rest of the half though, putting them up 36-27 at halftime.
Northwestern was able to bounce back coming out of halftime and despite three free throws from redshirt freshman center Jalone Friday, the Demons were able to go on a 7-0 run to make the score 39-34.
The Demons also out scored the men 16-11 to eventually tie the game at 50-50 with 11:12 left in the second half.
After Northwestern tied the score, the game remained close as both team’s biggest lead was four points.
At the 1:21 mark, sophomore point guard Jaylen Franklin converted a steal and dunk to give the Wildcats the lead at 71-70.
After the dunk, Northwestern could only put up two points and the Wildcats secured the victory out scoring the Demons 5-2 in the final minute.
Friday, who led the team with 20 points, spoke on how the team was focused on getting this win.
“We put Thursday’s loss behind us and stayed focused on Northwestern,” Friday said. “They’re a great ball club, they have great bigs, great guards, so we knew we were gonna have to bring it tonight.”
This win put the men up to ninth in the conference with a 5-8 record in Southland play and an 11-13 overall record, while Northwestern stayed in last with a 3-9 conference record and a 9-14 overall record.
Next to Friday’s 20 points, sophomore guard Jaren Lewis also put up good numbers with 11 points, nine rebounds, and six assists.
Head coach Joe Golding talked about what the men will have to focus on for their next road game.
“We gotta find a way to go on the road and win,” Golding said. “With a young team there’s some challenges that go into that, but we can’t use that anymore, we’re 24 or 25 games into the season and we got three road chances left and we gotta figure it out and try to go get one.”
The men will next be going on the road Thursday to face McNeese State.
