Box Score Kearney, Neb. – Tournament Most Valuable Player Justin Pitts had 20 points, five assists, five rebounds and four steals to lift No. 13 NW Missouri State to a 61-53 victory over Nebraska-Kearney in the finals of the MIAA Tournament Sunday afternoon in Kansas City.
 
The Bearcats (25-5), also the MIAA regular season champions, beat the Lopers (20-11) for a sixth straight time.
 
Never trailing but also never leading by more than 14 points, Northwest held UNK to a season-low 53 points. The Lopers also were just 5 of 7 at the line; they came in averaging 18 made free throws per game.
 
The league leader in scoring defense (64.9), the 'Cats led 10-5 eight minutes in and 32-22 at the break. Pitts, the MIAA Player of the Year, had 10 points by intermission with Northwest shooting 56% (15 of 27) in the first half.
 
UNK tried to come back in the second half but Ravenna senior Connor Beranek was called for his fourth foul with 11:35 remaining and Northwest up 40-30.
 
Finishing with a game-high 31 points, Beranek didn't foul out and fell just a rebound short of his ninth double double of the season. His only three of the game came with 1:33 left as part of a 15-7 Loper run.

 
The trey cut the deficit to six, 53-47, but Northwest made three of its next four free throws to keep UNK at bay. The mini-Kearney spurt was aided by the 'Cats missing the front end of two 1-and-1 free throws.
 
On the day, Northwest went 8 of 13 at the line with each made freebie coming in the final 1:25. The 'Cats lost the rebounding battle, 31-28, but shot just a tad higher from the field, 48%-46%, than the Lopers.
 
"They came out like a team that has made the Sweet 16 the past two years," said UNK head coach Kevin Lofton. "I thought our guys came out and battled but we did not score the ball the way we're capable of. We also turned it over a bit too much (15 times) but they had a lot to do with those two things."
 
A 5-9, 145 pound redshirt sophomore, Pitts was 9 of 17 from the floor (0 of 3 threes) and 2 of 2 at the line. Playing all 40 minutes, four of his rebounds came on the defensive end.
 
Also making the all-tournament team from Northwest was senior guard Conner Crooker. He never left the floor today and tallied six points, two rebounds and two assists. Finally, junior forward Zach Schneider hit all three of NW's three pointers to tally 11.
 
Reaching the 30 point mark for the ninth time to push his season point total to 763, Beranek was 13 of 24 from the floor (1 of 4 threes) and 4 of 5 at the line. Eight of his rebounds came on the defensive end and he played 32 minutes.
 
"Our strength is going inside out. The first time we played them, we had a lot of success doing that. They just loaded the paint today. They were diving at the ball and a lot of their steals came from strips when we were trying to attack the basket," said Lofton.
 
Joining Beranek on the all-tournament team was York sophomore guard Ty Danielson. Today, he sunk half of his eight shots to tally 10 points while playing all 40 minutes. Also for the Lopers, Norfolk senior post Ethan Brozek had eight points, seven boards, four assists and two steals.
 
The NCAA Tournament selection show airs tonight at 9:30 p.m. on www.ncaa.com.