Pitts, Ndow lead Northwest Missouri St to D-II championship

Northwest Missouri State 71, Fairmont State 61

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Justin Pitts scored 23 points, Chris-Ebou Ndow had a double-double and Northwest Missouri State beat Fairmont State 71-61 Saturday in the NCAA Division II championship game.

Ndow finished with 17 points and 18 rebounds and Anthony Woods scored 13 with five rebounds and five assists for Northwest Missouri State (35-1). The Bearcats won their first men's basketball national championship and became the first D-II school to win the title in football and basketball in the same academic year.

"We came out with no fear, which was unbelievable," Northwest coach Ben McCollum said. "I knew if we had any chance to beat them, you have to kind of bully the bullies. They get after it so much and make it really difficult for you. I was happy with our guys' performance."

Pitts hit a 3-pointer to open the game and a layup by Woods made it 13-3 about 5 minutes in and Northwest Missouri State took a 32-21 lead into the break. Another 3 by Pitts gave the Bearcats their biggest lead, 36-22, with 18 minutes to go and Fairmont State (34-3) trailed by at least eight the rest of the way.

"This feels amazing," Pitts said. "I am so happy we got it done for the seniors."

Matt Bingaya had 24 points and seven rebounds and Thomas Winbush scored 17 with eight boards for the Falcons.

A layup by Shammgod Wells cut Fairmont's deficit to 60-52 with 4:54 left, but Ndow answered with a layup eight seconds later and the Falcons missed their next eight shots, and two free throws by Ndow made it 68-54 with 1:12 remaining.

"This is special," Ndow said. "We wanted to go down swinging. If we were going to lose, we weren't going to lose easy. We have an unbelievable group of seniors. It is only fitting they go out this way."

Fairmont, which came in averaging 95.4 points per game, shot just 31 percent (9-of-29) from the field in the first half. The Falcons set season lows for points in a half (21 in the first) and total points.

Both teams were appearing in their first D-II national championship game and each set school records for wins in a season.

Northwest Missouri ended Lincoln's season with an 80-76 win earlier this month in the MIAA Tournament quarterfinals.