HONOLULU, HAWAII- Northwestern Oklahoma State Lady Rangers closed out their trip to Hawaii Saturday evening with a 71-61 victory over Stanislaus State. The Lady Rangers used a big second half to secure the win out scoring the Warriors by 15 in the second half.
The win pushed the Lady Rangers record to 6-0 heading into conference play Thursday evening. The Warriors drop to 3-4 on the year.
Northwestern was led by Faith Simpson finishing Saturday's game with a double-double of 23 points and 14 rebounds, both team highs. Carly Craig finished with a team high of six assists while Camille Thomas and Payton Jones each had four steals.
The opening minutes of the game belonged to the defenses as neither team were able to score in the opening three minutes of the game before Paige Scott drilled a three pointer for a 3-0 lead assisted by Craig. The Warriors came back with their own three pointer to tie the game at 3-3. The defensive intensity continued through the opening quarter as Northwestern was tied 5-5 halfway through the quarter before the Warriors scored five straight to take a 9-5 lead. Carly Craig and Josena Frame though quickly tied the game with back to back layups as the score was tied at 9-9. Stanislaus State closed the quarter though with the lead following a foul shot making it a 10-9 quarter through one.
In the second quarter Payton Jones pushed the Rangers in front 11-10 starting an 8-1 run to open the second quarter in the first two and half minutes of the quarter. Northwestern held the Warriors scoreless by forcing two turnovers and holding them to 0-3 shooting in that time frame. Jones led the way with five of her seven second quarter points to start the quarter. A three pointer by Marques ended the Lady Ranger run as the Warriors tied the score at 19-19, before even taking the lead at 22-19 following a three pointer by Patterson. The lead was 25-19 before Simpson ended their run. Camille Thomas hit two foul shots right before halftime to make it 28-23 at the break.
Northwestern heated up to start the second half with a 7-0 run to take a 30-28 lead after halftime. It was all started by a Faith Simpson layup assisted by Craig, her fourth of the game. Craig knocked down a three pointer following her first steal of the game. Two minutes into the third quarter the Warriors scored their first points to tie the game at 30-30. Camille Thomas took advantage of second chance points scoring off an offensive rebound before the teams went back and forth trading leads. After the game was tied at 38-38 with 2:56 left in the third quarter. Northwestern scored four points in the final thirty seconds of the quarter to take a 45-41 lead into the fourth quarter. Faith Simpson and Camille Thomas hit layups following Payton Jones' fourth steal of the game.
In the fourth quarter Nikya Orange was the first to score at the 8:33 mark of the quarter following a layup assisted by P. Jones. Two straight three pointers by the Warriors tied the game at 47-47. With the game tied Josena Frame made two straight shots to take a 56-52 lead over the Warriors about halfway through the final quarter. The game remained a four point game when Faith Simpson finished a shot taking the lead to 62-56 but the Warriors were not ready to go away drilling a three pointer by Marques for her 25th point of the evening. The Lady Rangers were able to seal the win with seven foul shots in the final minute of the game pushing their lead even further as the Lady Rangers closed out a double digit win 71-61 over the Warriors.
Northwestern closes out the non-conference start to the season with a 6-0 record as conference play begins on the road Thursday in Ada against East Central. The first conference home game will be Saturday December 2nd against Oklahoma Baptist.
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