ALVA, OKLA - The Northwestern Oklahoma State Lady Rangers travel to Shawnee to face off against Oklahoma Baptist to conclude the two game home and home season series. The Bison took the first game 63-54 over Northwestern back in December. The Saturday game will open a three game road trip for the Lady Rangers.
The Red-and-Black have won seven straight games following their upset win over #14 Southwestern Oklahoma State Thursday night. The team continues the longest win streak since the 2001-2002 season when the program won 10 straight games.
The third straight week the Lady Rangers had a player earn GAC player of the week. This week Bailey Brown earned the recognition after Scout Frame won week seven and Kinsey Neiderer had week six.
Northwestern Oklahoma State (10-5 overall, 6-3 Great American Conference) will take on Oklahoma Baptist (8-7 overall, 4-5 GAC). The Lady Rangers have won seven straight including six straight in conference play. The Bison will enter Saturday 2-3 in their last five games.
The Red-and-Black continue to impress on the defensive end of the floor after forcing 19 turnovers and holding the Bulldogs to 27% from behind the arc in the win. Northwestern is second in the conference in scoring defense allowing 62.8 points per game. Northwestern forces 17.9 turnovers a game, and are first in rebounding margin.
Camille Thomas leads the team with seven blocks followed by Brown with six. Carly Craig leads the team with 24 steals followed by Josena Frame with 22. Northwestern is fourth in the conference in steals per game.
Northwestern is sixth in the conference in scoring with 76.1 points per game. The offense is led by Bailey Brown at 18.7 points per game scoring double digits in every game except for one. Scout Frame continued her recent stretch scoring 25 on Thursday night bringing her season average to 15.1 per game. The Ranger forward has scored 20+ in four of the last five and double digits in each of the last five games. Northwestern is ranked 24th in the country in 3pt field goals made and third in the conference with 112 through the opening 15 games. Kinsey Neiderer leads the team with 37 made threes on 45% averaging 10.0 points a game. Craig shoots just over 40% from three averaging 8.3 points a game.
Craig has been the floor general for the Lady Rangers leading the team with 71 assists on the season, good for second in the conference and 13th in the nation. Her assist to turnover ratio is fifth best in the conference at 1.61.
Scouting the Bison:
Oklahoma Baptist will be coming off of a one point victory over Southern Nazarene Thursday night following a 17 point comeback win. They have lost three of their last five games and stand in eighth place in the conference standings.
The Bison have had a balanced season offensively and defensively averaging 68.8 points per game while allowing 66.7 points a game. Kalifa Ford has been OBU's leading scorer at 14.6 points a game shooting 46% from the field. While bringing down 8.6 rebounds per contest. Oklahoma Baptist has used strong shooting to this point in the season shooting 37% from behind the arc first in the conference and 13th in the nation. They are led in this by Lockhart shooting 43.6% from three. Jill Leslie leads the team with 13 blocks on the year as Ford and Stapelton lead with 23 steals on the season.
History:
Northwestern will avenge the loss from earlier this season between the two teams from the meeting back in December. OBU had three double figure scorers led by Kalifa Ford with 15 points and 11 rebounds in a double double effort. Northwestern was led by Brown with 25 points and 10 rebounds in her double-double game as one of three double figure scorers joined by Neiderer and S. Frame. The Lady Rangers lead the overall series history 8-7 since 2013 and have won three of the last five including the last four meetings in Shawnee.
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