ALVA, Okla.- The Northwestern Oklahoma State University Women's Basketball team experienced the improvement head coach Tasha Diesselhorst will provide for the program immediately over the course of the first weekend of basketball action.

            The opening weekend of basketball saw the Rangers improve from a tough opening loss on Friday night to Central Oklahoma University, to a much improved performance against Northeastern State University on Sunday afternoon.

            Despite ultimately losing the contest against Northeastern 82-67, coach Diesselhorst's team improved tremendously between the first game and second game of the weekend. The Rangers trailed just 43-34 at the end of the first half against Northeastern and will look to use that solid first half of play as a building block for the rest of the season.

            "Sunday we put together a pretty good first half and now we just have to work on putting two halves together," Diesselhorst said. "Our defense was a lot better and we were able to run the ball a lot better on transition."

            The Rangers were led this weekend by guards Kalea King and Kori Barrios, who are averaging 10.0 points and 9.0 points respectively. Barrios is also averaging 8.0 rebounds a game, leaving her just shy of averaging a double-double.

            The Ranger's continued improvement will be tested on the road this weekend when they open up Great American Conference play. Northwestern will take on the top two pre-season ranked teams in the conference, as Thursday the Rangers will square off with top-ranked Harding, followed by a match-up on Saturday against second-ranked Arkansas Tech.

            Harding received six of the 12 first-place votes in the pre-season poll and return two All-GAC selections in Sydney Layrock, a First-Team selection, and A'ndrea Haney, a Second-Team selection and the 2016 GAC Defensive Player of the Year.

            Harding will enter the contest with a record of 2-1, with their only loss happening at Division I Arkansas State. Layrock currently leads the team in scoring with 17.0 points a game, as well as rebounding with 6.5 boards a game.

            Despite being narrowly edged by Harding in the pre-season GAC polls, the Golden Suns come into the season ranked in a tie for 25^th spot in the Woman's Basketball Coaches Association Division II Preseason Top 25. Arkansas Tech finished last season with a 27-4 record en route to it's fourth GAC regular-season championship and second GAC tournament championship.

            The Golden Suns return Anissa Pounds, who averaged 11.9 points last season and shot 42.0 percent from the 3-point line last season to rank fourth in the GAC. Pounds was a 2016 Second-Team All-GAC selection.

            The Suns will enter the weekend with a 1-0 record, defeating Lane College in their only official game of the season by a score of 81-51. Three Arkansas Tech players reached double digit points in a game where they shot 42.8 percent from the field.
              
Tip-off times are set for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday and 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Thursday vs HARDING: Click here for Live Stats and Click here for Live Video

Saturday vs ARK TECH: Click here for Live Stats and Click here for Live Video

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