ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - The Red-and-Black were set to take on Henderson State after winning at Ouachita Thursday night. However the Reddies used a strong second quarter to take control of the game and never looked back. This helped lead the home team to an 81-62 victory over your Lady Rangers.
The difference in this game came in the second quarter in which the Reddies won 21-9, using an 8-0 run to hit their largest lead at 20 points in the first half.
The Lady Rangers were led by senior Kalea King who finished the game with 24 points. With those 24 points, King achieved a new milestone of hitting 1500 points in her Northwestern career. She was followed by Bailey Brown, who finished the game with 20 points, and lastly, Hillary Hurst finished the game with 10 points, her fifth consecutive double-figure game. The Lady Rangers were led in rebounding by Brown finishing the game with 12 for her sixth double-double on the season. Kaylyn Maple finishes the afternoon with seven rebounds. Hurst led the Red-and-Black with three assists in the afternoon.
Brown got the scoring started for Northwestern knocking down the first four points of the game for Lady Rangers. The game started with four lead changes in the first two minutes of the game as both teams scored early on in the battle. After the Lady Rangers scored making it 20-18 the Reddies used a 6-0 run toward the end of the quarter to create separation from the Lady Rangers.
With the second quarter starting in favor of Henderson State 26-20, they used a strong quarter to explode out to a 20 point lead. The Reddies opened on a 6-0 run to get their lead over double-digits. The closest the Lady Rangers would cut the deficit to was nine before the Reddies would later use an 8-0 run to extend to their largest lead of the game at 20. Henderson's defense was the difference holding the Lady Rangers to just two field goals in the second quarter.
Lady Rangers went into halftime trailing 47-29 to Henderson State.
The second half opened with a lot of defense to start featuring a minute and a half without any points to start the quarter. After going down 22 the Lady Rangers would knock off seven straight points, all from Brown, cutting the deficit to 15 which was the closest Northwestern was able to get in the quarter. Henderson however had the quick answer rattling off five straight points to bring the deficit right back to 20. The quarter would come to a close with the Reddies having an 18 point advantage going into the final quarter.
The Lady Rangers had one final run in them sparking six straight points to open the fourth quarter cutting the deficit to 12 points with seven minutes left. Henderson wanted to make sure the run ended at that point as they scored eight straight to bring their lead back to 20 points with just over two minutes to play. Henderson's defense held the Rangers scoreless for about four and a half minutes. Katelyn Schieber would hit the final shot of the game for the Lady Rangers.
The Lady Rangers drop Saturday afternoon's game 81-62.
The Red-and-Black fall to 12-14 on the season and 8-12 in Great American Conference play. The Lady Rangers trail the final playoff spot by two games with two games remaining, as they try and catch Southern Arkansas for that eighth spot. Lady Rangers will be back in action on Thursday night against Arkansas Tech with a 5:30 tip-off. Senior Night will be Saturday, February 29th at 1 PM.
