Durant, Okla.- Northwestern Oklahoma State dropped Saturday evening's game against Southeastern Oklahoma State 76-64. The Savage Storm got off to a fast start, which proved to be the difference in this game, never trailing after their 15-4 run in the opening minutes.
The Red-and-Black fall to 2-4 on the season, 0-4 in the conference with their fourth straight loss after opening the season with two wins.
Parrish Hewitt led the Rangers with 16 points, eight rebounds, and five assists. Bubba Furlong notched his fifth double-double of the season with 13 points and a game-high ten rebounds. Deon Barrett finished with six points on the night but had a well-rounded game with nine assists with three steals, and two blocks leading the defense. Jack Peck rounded out the Rangers double-digit scorers with 10 points off the bench.
Northwestern struck first with a Furlong basket inside the paint. However, Southeastern would explode offensively to start the game as Adam Nance hit a three to spark a 7-0 run for the Savage Storm opening a 7-2 lead. Vadim Clanet would make consecutive three's opening a 15-6 lead. Southeastern would make five from beyond the arc in the first eight minutes of the game.
Southeastern would stretch their lead out to double digits for the first team at the halfway mark of the opening half from a Nance jumper. The deficit would grow to as many as 16 a few times in the half before the Rangers would start to climb back. The Rangers would use a spark from Barrett and Hewitt to get the deficit just under ten for the first time since the halfway mark with just over a minute to play in the opening half. Taylor Cox and Barrett would trade baskets to close out the first half with the Rangers trailing 36-26.
The second half would open with both teams trading basket after basket. The Rangers would try early to cut into the deficit. However, Southeastern used their three-point shooting too wide the margin. SOSU would hit three of their next four shots from behind the arc. Northwestern cut into the deficit, some getting it down to as many as eight multiple times, for the first one 39-31 with 18 minutes left. The defensive intensity picked up as both teams would go scoreless for the next 2:30 minutes of the game.
Clanet would hit another three to extend Southeastern's lead to 66-47 for a 19 point lead, which would be the largest of the game. He would finish the night with a game-high 20 points from hitting six threes. Cole Jones would make back to back triples late in the second half to give him his nine points on the evening.
The Rangers would close out the game on a 7-0 run, finished off by a Furlong layup to give us the final in favor of the Savage Storm 76-64.
Rangers will look to get back into the win column on Thursday evening against Oklahoma Baptist in Percefull Fieldhouse following the Lady Rangers game tipping-off at 5:30 PM.
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