ARKADELPHIA, Ark.- Despite a quality second half against one of the conference's top teams, Northwestern Oklahoma State's women's basketball team was defeated by a final score of 87-74 by conference-foe Henderson State.

Northwestern (3-10, 2-4 in GAC) outscored Henderson State (5-7, 5-1 in GAC) by a total of 51-33 in the second half during Saturday afternoon's action. The outburst of points in the second half of action was spurred by senior Ashley Pride and junior Kalea King, who scored 19 and 16 points respectively in the half alone.

Pride finished with a season-high 24 points while King continued her solid season with 22 points. The normally sharp-shooting Lady Rangers hit just 5-of-25 three-point attempts throughout the game. They did however shoot 48 percent in the second half from the field, showing a much improved offensive attack as the game wore on.

The game started out fairly even throughout the opening minutes, but a 15-6 Henderson State run midway through the first quarter extended the Reddie lead to 23-12. Two more Henderson scores brought the score at the end of one to 25-12 in favor of the Reddies. Henderson's solid shooting started early as they shot 50 percent in the opening quarter compared to the Lady Rangers 27 percent.

The Reddies kept the pedal to the medal and opened up a 51-24 lead with thirty seconds left in the opening half. Northwestern answered with two Pride free throws to attempt to build some momentum down 54-23 at the half.

The Lady Rangers defense played a solid third quarter, holding the Reddies to just eight shot attempts throughout the quarter. Northwestern hit 45 percent of their shot attempts in the quarter to attempt to cut into the Reddie lead, but 12 made free throws by the home team helped them maintain a 76-48 lead.

The Lady Rangers showed some grit during the remainder of the contest and outscored the Reddies 26-11 in the fourth quarter. During that 26-11 run, the Lady Rangers shot 53 percent from the floor and caused nine Reddie turnovers to establish some confidence against one the Great American Conference's best teams.

Northwestern will return home to Percefull Fieldhouse on Jan. 12 to continue conference play against Southern Nazarene. Tip-off for that ball game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.