ALVA, OKLAHOMA - Northwestern Oklahoma State Lady Ranger basketball (6-0, 0-0) is set to open conference play Thursday evening against East Central (3-0,0-0) in a matchup of undefeated teams in Ada, Oklahoma in the conference opener.
Northwestern is off to the best start since 2001-2002 when the team opened 10-0 to start the season.Â
The Rangers enter Thursday's contest coming off a trip to Hawaii where the team earned two victories one over Chaminade and the other over Stanislaus State. This made it six straight for the Lady Rangers. East Central also comes in without a loss after winning three straight games one of Oklahoma Christian and another over Newman.
East Central entered the season coming off a 11-16 season with an 8-14 conference record after finishing seventh in the conference. The Tigers currently sit tied for first with the Lady Rangers and were picked 10th in the preseason poll. Northwestern was picked seventh by the conference coaches coming off a 12-14 season with an 8-14 GAC record.Â
The Lady Ranger offense has been led by Faith Simpson, and Carly Craig, two players averaging double figures. Simpson is scoring 15.3 points per game on 54.7% shooting from the field. Craig is scoring 14.0 points per game shooting 43.9% from the field after hitting a team best 18 three pointers this season.Â
Simpson has also led the team in rebounding with eight per game and mixing eight steals and six blocks on defense. Payton Jones has been the team leader though with 21 steals on the year through the first six games.Â
For the opponent the Tigers have been led by Mackenzie Crusoe with 17.7 points per game as one of three players averaging double figures, joined by Jayden Weiberg at 10.3 and Natalie Payne at 10.0 per contest.Â
The Lady Rangers look to pick up their first win in Ada since the 2020 season. The two teams split the season series a year ago 1-1. Faith Simpson and Carly Craig led the team in scoring in the two games. Overall ECU lead the series history 16-8 dating back to 2013.Â
Faith Simpson coming off a week where she earned GAC Player of the week after scoring 43 points and bringing down 23 rebounds in two weekend victories.
You can follow the game in three ways as the game can be watched on East Central's sports network at https://adasports.net/xfactor live stats can be found at https://ecutigers.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary and listened to on https://www.alvaradio.com/ as Dustin Goodno has the play-by-play call.
For the latest news and updates on NWOSU Athletics, follow @NWOSUAthletics on TWITTER or visit www.riderangersride.com.
