ALVA, Okla. - The Northwestern Oklahoma State Lady Rangers (9-11, 5-9 GAC) hosted Great American Conference foe, the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns (16-2, 12-2 GAC) and came up short in a hard-fought comeback, 84-74.

Leading the way for the Lady Rangers on the evening was Jade Jones who finished as the leading scorer on the game with 21. helping her cause quite a bit was her free throw shooting, where she was a cool 9-of-10 from the charity stripe.

Following her on the women's squad was Destinee Robinson who netted 14 points and was 50 percent on the night.

The first quarter was a tough one for the Lady Rangers as they had some trouble getting out of the gate, as ATU held them to just eight points on 3-of-11 shooting. The biggest stat on the Black-and-Red side of the ball was the turnovers as they were forced into 10 as they only turned the Golden Suns over once in the period.

On the other half of the court, Tech was sound all the way around, shooting 50 percent from the field as a whole, while torching the nets from beyond, going 6-for-9 for 33 total points.

Not to be outdone however, the Lady Rangers started to pick it up offensively in the second, knocking down the first three shots of the period in just under three minutes into the quarter.

Sparking the Lady Rangers early on in the second period was Destinee Robinson coming off the bench and knocking down two straight threes to get the Northwestern offense rolling.

The surge in offense continued down the stretch for the home team, but so did ATU's, reaching 55 points at the break while holding the Lady Rangers to 33.

Two players for the game reached double figures in scoring as Tech's Jayana Sanders was electric, putting up 18, while Jade Jones also had a quality half, netting 10 of her own.

Coming out of the locker room a couple of Lady Rangers got hot as Robinson put up eight points on top of her already six points scored in the first. Her last three-point bucket put the Rangers back within 14, the closest the score has been since the first half of play.

Not only did Robinson start out of the gate well, but so did Jones who has moved her double digit scoring night to 17, while assisting on four baskets.

Northwestern played fantastic defense in the third quarter as they held the high octane offense of the Golden Suns to just 12 points, while scoring 20 of their own to close the gap to 14.

At the 8:43 mark of the final period of play, the Black-and-Red got back within 13, the closest the game has been since very early on in the contest.

ATU took another large lead at 17, but the Lady Rangers fought their way back quickly, bringing it to a 10-point ballgame, but that would be as close as Northwestern could get, ultimately falling short, 84-74.

The Lady Rangers will be back in action on Saturday, Feb. 3 where they will host the Lady Bisons of Harding on Hall of Fame Saturday.