Box Score Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney men's basketball team sunk 15 three pointers, two shy of the school record, to rally past Missouri Western State, 75-70, Saturday night in St. Joseph, Mo. 
 
The Lopers (7-16, 4-11) stop a three-game losing streak while the Griffons (9-15, 5-11) have now dropped two in a row.
 
Western led the entire first half but UNK hung around, trailing 32-27 at the break. The Lopers closed on a 9-5 run that featured threes by junior Thomas Cooper (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and sophomores Pierre Newton (Laveen, Ariz.) and Tyler Shields (Kearney H.S.).
 
As a team, Kearney ended 15 of 33 (45.5%) from behind the arc with four different players making at least one triple. Nine of the treys came after the break with the school record being 17, set in 2010 at Metro State and first established at home in a 2004 win over New Mexico Highlands.
 
Down 41-34 with 16:02 to play, the Lopers reeled off 10 straight points, the last six being back-to-back triples by Cooper. After Western tied things up, Shields and Cooper hit two more threes to give UNK a six-point lead.
 
The Griffons then trailed 55-51 when UNK scored 10 in a row, the last bucket being a three from senior lefty Jon Henderson (Salt Lake City, Utah).
 
Four Lopers scored in double digits, led by Henderson with 23. He went 7 of 14 from the field (5 of 10 threes) while also having a team-high seven assists.  
 
Next, Cooper scored a career-high 17 on 6 of 10 (5 of 8 threes) shooting. This marks the third time in the last four games he has scored in double figures. Newton (15) and Shields (13) combined for 28 points and 5 of 12 three point shooting with Shields having a team-best eight rebounds (six defensive).
 
Shooting 51% (29 of 57) from the field, Western was just 9 of 22 from long range and was only 3 of 8 at the line.  Forward Cedric Clinkscales led the way with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
 
UNK hosts NW Missouri State (Wed.) and Lindenwood (Fri.) next week to close out the regular season.
 
The box score can be found here: http://sidearmstats.com/missouri/mbball/scoreboard.aspx