Bethany, Okla.- Northwestern Oklahoma State Men's basketball team traveled to Bethany for a road matchup against the Crimson Storm. The Rangers used a solid late run in the first half to push a nine-point advantage at the break before winning 88-63.
The win improves the Rangers to 6-2 on the season, and 2-1 in Great American Conference play.
"It was awesome to see the energy our team brought to the floor tonight. I thought we did a nice job of turning defense into offense, and that helped us get off to a good start. We spent a lot of time this week cleaning up our defense, and it was good to see the carryover into our game" head coach Vinay Patel said after the win.
The Rangers offense was led in scoring by Malik Parsons, finishing the game with 22 points as one of four double-figure scorers. He was joined by Bubba Furlong with 19, Larry White at 17, and Brian Free with 16. Furlong led the charge on defense, finishing with 11 rebounds and six blocks in the conference game. Northwestern's defense led the way forcing nine steals and eight blocks in the Saturday game.
1st Half:
Northwestern opened the game strong on the offensive, and defensive end of the floor as the Rangers jumped out to an early 6-0 lead. Northwestern started the game three of four from the floor as the defense forced two turnovers in the opening three minutes. Southern Nazarene got their first points of the half on two free throws at the 16:55 mark. The Red-and-Black held a 12-8 advantage at the opening media timeout led by White with six points in the early going.
The Crimson Storm responded with four straight out of the timeout to even the score at 12-12 following a three-pointer by Tracey. Northwestern responded with five straight to regain the lead and take a 17-12 advantage following a Moody three-pointer. Crimson Storm would battle back to tie the game at 19-19 following a dunk right before the second timeout with just under 12 minutes to play in the half.
Southern Nazarene continued to pressure the Rangers out of the timeout opening a 26-21 lead. Northwestern had the answer, though, right away as the Red-and-Black went on a 7-0 run 9-2 overall to gain a 28-26 lead at the under eight timeout. Parsons led the run with four points on four of seven shooting as a team. The Rangers held the Storm to 1-6 from the field, forcing one turnover.
The two teams battled in the following stretch before the timeout, with each team scoring five points to hold a two-point lead at 33-31. Parsons, Furlong, and White are all scoring for the Rangers on the run. In the final four minutes of the half, Northwestern found their rhythm, going on an 11-4 run to close the opening half. White, Free, and Parson led the charge, all with three points on the run as the Rangers shot 4-4 and 2-2 from three on the end of the half run. The Rangers' defense forced two turnovers. Northwestern built their first double-digit lead of the day at 44-32, but Iyaye three right before the final seconds cut the lead to nine right before halftime.
Northwestern led the Crimson Storm 44-35 at the end of the first half.
"Our offense has been, and continues to be, a work in progress. We are building more trust in each other and starting to understand exactly what we are looking for. It's fun to see our guys sharing the ball like they were tonight and I hope it is something we can continue to build on. Anthony Jones had five assists to zero turnovers. I'm proud of the way he was finding guys and helping others get going tonight" coach Patel stated following the win.
Second Half:
Northwestern started right where the first half ended in the second half as the Rangers opened the scoring with a foul shot from Parsons. Northwestern held a slight advantage in the opening minutes, outscoring the Storm 6-4 to push their lead back to 11. Anthony Jones led the way out of the break with three points to open the half. Rangers held a 50-39 advantage with 15:34 to play.
The Rangers led the next push 9-8, holding Southern Nazarene away as the Red-and-Black kept the double-digit lead with a 59-47 advantage. Parsons continued to score with four points in that stretch for the Rangers.
Crimson Storm tried to make their push out of the media timeout going on a 10-2 run to cut the Ranger lead down to six at 61-55 as Northwestern used a timeout. Right out of the break, Free would hit back-to-back three-pointers to push the Ranger lead back out to 12 at 67-55. Northwestern would hold a 67-56 lead heading into the next media timeout.
The Red-and-Black would not let up as the Rangers continued to extend their lead, winning the next four minutes 9-4 led by White scoring four more points as the Rangers shot four of five from the field. The Rangers' defense forced three more turnovers as the lead was extended to 76-60, the largest lead to that point in the game.
Northwestern would not stop there as the Red-and-Black closed the game on a 12-3 run as the Rangers hit two more threes and shot 5 of 6 in the home stretch. The Rangers would push the lead to 25, being the largest of the game for the Red-and-Black as Northwestern won 88-63.
The win snaps a seven-game losing streak to the Crimson Storm. Rangers' first win in Bethany since 2017.
This week, the Red-and-Black will return home for two home games with a non-conference game on December 14th against Oklahoma Panhandle State before returning to conference play on the 18th against Southeastern.
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