Evanston, Ill. -- The
UMKC men's basketball team dropped a 77-62 road contest at Northwestern on Monday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston. Sophomore Spencer Johnson tallied his fourth
consecutive double-double in the loss, as he finished with a career-high 22
points to go along with 12 boards.
NU jumped out to an early 7-0 lead over the first four
minutes of the contest, before the Kangaroos scored six unanswered points to
make the score 7-6 at the 12:31 mark.
Over the next four minutes, however, the Wildcats stretched their lead
to double digits at 18-8.
After Northwestern pushed its advantage to 11 (21-10) with
6:03 left in the half, UMKC used a 9-2 run to cut its deficit to four points at
23-19 behind four points by Fred Ford.
The Kangaroos stayed within four until the closing minute of the half
when NU got a John Shurna three-pointer and a Jeremy Nash tip-in to take a
32-23 lead into the break.
UMKC shot .345 from the floor in the opening 20 minutes
despite hitting just 4-of-its-first-21 shots.
NU, meanwhile, shot 48.1 percent, and it had eight assists on 13 made
field goals.
The Kangaroos pulled to within six points (37-31) early in
the second half behind six quick points by Johnson. The Wildcats, however, scored nine unanswered
and 12-of-14 points to build a 16-point lead with 14:11 remaining. NU then stretched its margin to a game-high
17 points (58-41) at the 9:36 mark.
UMKC continued battling as it cut deficit to 61-49 with 7:14
to play. The squad then got to within
single digits at 64-55 courtesy of a Dane Brumagin three pointer with 5:23
remaining. Northwestern, however, put
the game out of reach with an 8-2 run to stretch their lead to 72-57 with 2:42
left before going on to the 77-62 victory.
The Kangaroos finished with a .407 (24-59) field goal
percentage, while NU shot .483 (28-58) from the floor and .423 (11-26) from
three-point land. Both teams finished
with a total of 35 rebounds in the game.
Johnson led a group of four Kangaroo players in double
digits in the contest, as he made 11-of-18 fields en route to his career-best
22-point performance. Brumagin finished
with 14 points, while Reggie Hamilton and Ford added 12 points apiece. Hamilton
also had a game-high eight assists.
Northwestern, meanwhile, had three players finish in double
digits with a pair of players hitting the 20-point mark. Kevin Coble led all players with 22 points, while
Shurna netted 20 in the contest.
UMKC (4-8) will round out its current three-game road trip
on Thursday night at Eastern Washington.
