ALVA, Okla.- Northwestern Oklahoma State's Women's Basketball team dropped their first conference home game of the year to in-state rival Southern Nazarene by a final score of 85-63.

Despite jumping out to a 14-3 lead early in the game, the Lady Rangers were unable to pick up a win in a key conference home game. Northwestern hit just 22-of-66 shots throughout the contest. They were also out rebounded by the Crimson Storm 51-to-33.

Junior Kalea King led the Lady Rangers with 14 points on 7-of-14 shooting, while also notching two steals during the game. Round Rock, Texas native Deja Beechum  provided a solid stat line with 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals.

Northwestern got the action started by jumping out to a 14-3 lead. The defense that head coach Tasha Diesselhorst had looked to improve on showed up early as the Lady Rangers held the Crimson Storm to just three points in the first seven minutes of the contest. Southern Nazarene responded with a 13-2 run in the final minutes of the quarter to bring the score to 16-16 at the conclusion of one quarter.

Southern Nazarene took their first lead of the ball game at the 7:09 mark of the quarter, following Storm guard Abby Boyd's jump shot that brought the score to 20-19. Northwestern's typically potent offense sputtered during the middle part of the quarter as they went five minutes without putting a point on the board. In what was becoming an apparent defensive slugfest early, the Lady Rangers defense allowed just six points throughout that scoreless stretch to make the deficit just 26-19. A deep three-point shot from Storm forward Adrienne Berry forced a Lady Ranger timeout with 2:51 left in the half. Following three more points from Southern Nazarene, senior Ashley Pride finally broke the scoring drought with back-to-back three pointers to bring the score to 32-25. Another jump shot from the Storm made the score 34-25 going into the halftime break. Northwestern was held to just 27 percent shooting from the floor in the first half.

The Rangers continued to struggle to find offensive consistency as the Storm increased their lead to 42-30 early in the second half. Northwestern was outscored 26-9 in the third quarter to fall behind 60-34 at the conclusion of the three periods of action. The black-and-red could only convert on 4-of-16 field goal attempts throughout the quarter.

12 Ranger points in less than three minutes forced a Crimson Storm timeout with 4:37 remaining, as the once 27- point Southern Nazarene lead was cut to just 74-51. Continued consistency from Southern Nazarene on the offensive side of the ball never allowed the Rangers a chance to decrease the lead anymore.

Up Next
Northwestern will hit the road and head to Durant, Okla. to take on Southeastern Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon with tip-off set for 1 p.m.
For the latest information and updates on Ranger Basketball, follow @NWOSUAthletics on Twitter or go to www.riderangersride.com.