EDMOND, Okla-. The Rangers dropped their Thursday evening game against Southern Nazarene 61-54 on the road. The Crimson Storm used their defense to win forcing, 15 turnovers and holding the Rangers to 35% shooting from the field.
Northwestern falls to 2-8 on the season, 0-8 in Great American Conference play following the Thursday loss. Southern Nazarene improves to 8-6 on the year and in conference play.
The Red-and-Black were led by Parrish Hewitt, as he finished the game with 15 points tied for the game-high. He was one of three double-figure scorers, as Derrick White Jr. with 11 points and Bubba Furlong finished with 10 points to join him. The Rangers had six different players with two assists for team highs in Deon Barrett, Hewitt, Furlong, Justin Blunt, Cole Jones, and Matej Drgon. Hewitt led the team with eight rebounds on the evening, followed by Jack Peck and Furlong with six.
The Crimson Storm led by Manny Dixon finished with 15 points as one of four double-figure scorers. Nick Davis finished with 14, followed by Karlyn Kenner and Adokiye Iyaye. Dixon led the Storm with seven rebounds while Xavier Bryant led in assists with five.
The Thursday road matchup began just as advertised. In the opening frame of the game, the defensive battle was there. After in the opening minute, the teams traded threes from Manny Dixon and Derrick White Jr. the game would hit a small standstill. At the opening media timeout, there were just two field goals made by each team as the score was even at seven.
After being held scoreless for three-plus minutes, SNU ended the drought with foul shots taking a 9-7 lead out of the break. After SNU went on a small scoring run, the Rangers would answer as Barrett would hit back-to-back threes to give the Rangers a 20-18 lead at the halfway point of the first half.
The Crimson Storm would then respond with a 16-9 run to end the half as they opened a five-point halftime lead at 34-29. Even with the low scoring first half, both teams shot well, as Southern Nazarene was shooting 50 percent, followed by the Rangers at 45 percent.
Southern Nazarene would continue where they left off in the first half as they opened with the first six points of the second half, which opened themselves a double-digit lead at 40-29. The Rangers would stay in the game from the long ball making three of their next four shots from behind the arc. The Crimson Storm had an answer, though, with their largest lead opening to 13 early in the second half. Rangers were able to cut it to 10 at 52-42 during the halfway point of the half.
The game would continue to stay at a defensive pace as both teams were held scoreless for close to four minutes as each team only hit one shot in that time frame. This scoring drought, was followed by a three-minute scoring drought, with the Crimson Storm leading 54-47 with 6:45 left before SNU hit a foul shot at the 3:45 mark.
Rangers would not go anywhere though, as they continued to climb back in the game, drawing as close to five from a White layup. The game went as advertised in another defensive battle between these two teams. Southern Nazarene would answer each late Ranger push walking away with a 61-54 win. The Crimson Storm finished the game shooting 40 percent from the field and 21.7 percent from three. The Rangers finished shooting 35 percent from the field and 33 percent from behind the arc.
The Rangers will head to Shawnee, Okla. on Saturday afternoon to take on Oklahoma Baptist around 4 PM following the conclusion of the Lady Rangers game, which tips-off at 2 PM Saturday.
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