The play of his guards pleases new Northwest Missouri State men's basketball coach Ben McCollum despite their obvious inexperience.

While former Lafayette High School standout Bryston Williams started and played well in the season-opener against Manhattan Christian on Monday night, DeShaun Cooper came off the bench to make his mark as well.

And both are freshmen.

Cooper came off the bench to score 18 points, rack up nine assists, log four steals and pull down six rebounds in 24 minutes.

"(Cooper) turned it on toward the end of the game and did what he does in practice pretty consistently," McCollum said. "He got in the paint and made some things happen for us."

Williams, meanwhile, played 22 minutes, tallying five points, three rebounds, two steals and an assist.

"He's consistent, and no matter what shows up in the box score with him, he's a very good defender, and he's a leader," McCollum said of Williams. "Those things translate into wins."

McCollum's major concern after the Manhattan Christian game was the drop in the level of effort he had seen just days earlier in the exhibition game at the University of Missouri.

It was understandable but not acceptable, he said. And McCollum believes that is just one of the growing pains he must endure until the team learns that each game is part of a long-term process.

"You're not playing for the regular season; you're playing for the postseason, and each game is a learning experience," McCollum said.

Better after bye

Thanks to the bye week, only one lineman caught up in the recent spate of injuries likely will be out of the lineup when the Bearcats line up at noon Saturday against Abilene Christian in the second round of the NCAA Division II football playoffs.

Brett Grozinger, an offensive left tackle from Chillicothe, Mo., is nursing a knee injury that kept him out of the regular season finale against Central Missouri on Nov. 7.

"We made significant progress in the health of our football team," coach Mel Tjeerdsma said. "Hopefully by Saturday, with the exception of Brett Grozinger, we'll be real close to having everybody back to 100 percent. If we can do that, we'll be in pretty good shape."

Two members of the secondary - E.J. Hawkins and Ryan Jones - and defensive end Sean Paddock played at less than 100 percent effectiveness in the final regular season game against Central Missouri.

Good news, good news

Northwest women's basketball coach Gene Steinmeyer found a way to put a positive spin on Sunday's 75-64 victory at home against Upper Iowa in the regular season opener, even if the game was much closer than he had hoped.

"There were two pieces of good news. First, we won the game. And the second piece of good news is that we made enough mistakes that we won't get bored in practice this week," Steinmeyer said.

The Bearcats led Upper Iowa by as many as 19 points with 27 seconds remaining in the first half but couldn't put the Peacocks away. In fact, Upper Iowa had cut the deficit to seven points with 14:55 remaining.

"What happens when we get up 19 on Emporia?" Steinmeyer asked rhetorically. "They're going to get a lot closer than seven, I'm going to tell you that."

Encouraging finish

Interim head volleyball coach Allison Rogers was encouraged with the way her team finished the season, despite its overall 15-21 record.

The Bearcats recovered from a 3-2 loss at Missouri Western last Wednesday to knock off No. 19 Truman State 3-1 at Bearcat Arena on Friday. Northwest ended the season the next day with a sweep at Missouri Southern.

"It was a major high note to finish the season," Rogers said.

The week also provided a high note in the career of setter Paige Spangenberg. Spangenberg, who recorded 25 digs against Truman State to overtake Jill Quast (1997-2000) for the school's all-time career digs record, is just a junior. She needed just 11 in that match to tie the record, and with her subsequent performance against Southern, her record now stands at 1,948.

Spangenberg credited the record to "fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. My mom was my coach in high school, so it's just something I've always been brought up with. It's something that I work on every day."

Bits and pieces

The men's tennis team has been given a preseason ranking of No. 24 nationally, while Felipe Gennari is ranked 44th in the country in singles. The women's team, MIAA champion last season, is ranked the preseason No. 8 in its region. :Former Bearcat running back Xavier Omon, who was waived last week by the Buffalo Bills, quickly caught on with the Seattle Seahawks. Tjeerdsma, who keeps in contact with the All-American and 2008 sixth-round draft pick, said Omon is excited about the new opportunity, although he will be kept on the Seahawks' practice squad until he's had time to learn Seattle's offense.