ADA, Okla. - The Lady Rangers were set to end a two-game losing streak, as, the Red-and-Black traveled to Ada, Oklahoma for the Saturday afternoon game. Northwestern, was set for their second meeting of the year with East Central this season, as they looked to complete the season sweep. In a back and forth affair Northwestern was able to scratch out a one-point victory 68-67 over the Tigers of East Central.
Northwestern had 12 offensive rebounds in this game with the biggest one coming in the final seconds. Bailey Brown fought for her eighth rebound off of a Kenzi Lamer missed three, which Brown followed up with a putback layup with 2 seconds left in the game, which proved to be the winning basket for the Lady Rangers.
Sophomore, Hillary Hurst, and junior Bailey Brown led the charge for Northwestern finishing the game with 20 and 18 points respectively. Kalea King and Presley Payahsape joined in on the double-digit scoring with 13 and 11. The rebounding was led by Hurst with 10 followed by Brown at eight and King with seven. King led Northwestern in assists finishing with three.
Brown opened the game with a layup for Northwestern to get the scoring going early on. East Central and Northwestern would go at it for the rest of the quarter. Payahsape kept the Lady Rangers within striking distance in the opening quarter with six of her eleven in that quarter. After Payahsape made it an 18-16 game the Tigers responded by closing the quarter on a 12-0 run to go up by eight after one.
King started the second quarter off with a couple of foul shots to end the Tigers run. After the Tigers kept the Rangers at length for half the quarter maintaining their nine-point lead, until just under the five-minute mark when Hurst started the Rangers' 11-0 run to give the Lady Rangers a 38-37 lead. An East Central foul shot sent the game into halftime with a tied score.
East Central and Northwestern would be tied 38-38 at the break.
Hurst got the scoring started for the Lady Rangers in the third quarter. The third quarter went back and forth for the majority which featured three lead changes along with three ties. As ECU tried to create some separation Lamer hit one of her two threes to bring Northwestern right back in the game. The Tigers would carry a five-point lead into the final quarter.
East Central and Northwestern would start trading baskets back and forth as the Lady Rangers could never climb too far into the deficit and Lamer hit another three-pointer this time to cut into the deficit and bring the Red-and-Black within two at 64-62. With the Lady Rangers down 67-64, a King layup would bring Northwestern back within one at 67-66. After a missed foul shot and a timeout by head coach Tasha Diesselhorst, Brown fought for an offensive rebound after ECU blocked a three-point attempt. As Brown received the offensive rebound she went up with the left hand to finish off the game-winning layup and send Northwestern home with a 68-67 victory.
Northwestern took advantage of the paint scoring 32 points from inside the paint compared to 20 for East Central. Lastly points off of turnovers the Lady Rangers won 18-11.
The win improves Northwestern to 11-11 on the season with 7-9 in Great American Conference play. The Lady Rangers will return home to play archrival Southwestern Oklahoma State Thursday night at 5:30 in Percefull Fieldhouse. The theme for the game Thursday night will be a blackout.
