ALVA, Okla.– Northwestern Oklahoma State University Rangers finished that past weekend with two huge Great American Conference games. Both came down to the last few seconds to decide a winner and the Rangers snatched their last game against Arkansas Tech on a final second three to take the game 67-64. 
 
The Red-and-Black hope to continue their momentum into the final month of January as they take on the University of Arkansas at Monticello and Southern Arkansas University. The Rangers enter the weekend with an overall record of 6-12, and a 3-9 mark in league play. 
 
The Rangers are led by Head Coach Vinay Patel who is in his first season with Northwestern. The Black-and-Red offense is led by Parrish Hewitt who averages 16.9 points per game while having a .352 shooting percentage from beyond the arc, with Jaedon Whitfield close behind at 12.7 points per game and 129 total rebounds. A.J. Jones continues to lead the Rangers with 76 assists per game.
 
University of Arkansas at Monticello (Thursday Jan. 30^th at 7:30 p.m.)
 
The Black-and-Red will end the month of January with a match-up against Arkansas Monticello in Percefull Fieldhouse. The Weevils are having a spectacular season but have struggled in the last couple weeks with a 13-8 overall record, and a 5-7 mark in league play. They are riding a six-game losing streak as they dropped their last game with a close score of 80-77 against Oklahoma Baptist.
 
The Weevils lead the overall match-up with eight wins to the Rangers four. Arkansas-Monticello won the last match-up with a score of 93-73 that was played at the beginning of January. Whitfield led the Rangers with 17 total points and five rebounds, with Hewitt who tallied 16 points of his own with six rebounds. This will be the 13^th match-up of all time.
 
Arkansas Monticello is led by Head Coach Kyle Tolin who is the middle of his sixth season. The Weevils offense is led by Senior guard KJ Lesure who averages 17.9 points per game and an astounding 132 assists. Senior forward Justin Slocum and Senior guard Marcus Gilbert are both next with 14.7 and 13.4 points per game each. Slocum averages 6.8 rebounds a game.

 

Northwestern	Arkansas Monticello
Points Per Game: 69.6	Points Per Game: 86.2
Rebounds Per Game: 34.5	Rebounds Per Game: 40.7
Assists Per Game: 11.4	Assists Per Game: 15.3
Turnovers Per Game: 14.9	Turnovers per game 13.6

 
 




Southern Arkansas University (Saturday Feb. 1^stat 3:00 p.m.)
 
Northwestern starts the month of February with a tough conference game against Southern Arkansas for their second match-up of the season. The Muleriders are sitting with a 9-9 record, with a 6-6 mark in GAC play. Unlike their travel partner, the Muleriders are riding a four-game win streak as they cross state lines. Southern Arkansas took their last win against Southern Nazarene in a similar fashion to the Rangers with a three-point differential, 57-54.
 
As the two-teams face-off for their 14^th match-up of all time the Rangers hold the favor with eight wins and only five loses against Southern Arkansas. The last time these two teams faced-off was at the beginning of this month as the Rangers took the overtime win 88-84. Hewitt had an outstanding game with 25 points and nine rebounds, while Nathan Bailey III earned a season high 17 points and went 3-5 from deep. Jack Peck also tallied 11 points of his own.
 
Southern Arkansas is led by Head Coach Andy Sharpe who is in the middle of his eighth season. The Mulerider's offense is led by junior point-guard Aaron Lucas who averages 14.6 points per game as well as a team leading 62 assists, followed by junior forward Devante Brooks with 13.8 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game.

 

Northwestern	Southern Arkansas
Points Per Game: 69.6	Points Per Game:  68.8
Rebounds Per Game: 34.5	Rebounds Per Game: 38.9
Assists Per Game: 11.4	Assists Per Game: 9.2
Turnovers Per Game: 14.9	Turnovers per game 15.1

 





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