BETHANY OKLAHOMA- Northwestern traveled to Bethany on Saturday afternoon for a conference matchup against Southern Nazarene. The Rangers used nine steals defensively and a well balanced offensive attack to win a close game over the Crimson Storm.
The win improves the Rangers to 3-5 on the season with 1-2 conference record as the Crimson Storm fall to 4-3 with a 1-2 conference mark.
Southern Nazarene got the scoring started with a jump shot from Jonas Visser. Larry White's defense helped spark the Rangers as White had a steal and block in the early part of the game McDowell knocked down back to back shots to push Northwestern into their first lead of the game. McDowell forced a turnover before finishing a fast break dunk on the other end for an 8-5 lead.
The defensive intensity continued as a two minute scoring drought for both teams before Brian Free ended that with a floating jumper for a 10-5 Northwestern lead. Northwestern continued to extend the lead in the first half as Chance Love scored four straight points off the bench extending the lead to 14-7. Kabeya Tshibangu continued the Rangers strong defensive start as his second steal helped lead to a Larry White dunk on the other side of the floor for an 18-9 lead. A DaRaun Clark fast break and followed by a point from McDowell helped lead to the Rangers first double digit lead of the game at 24-11 with 7:14 remaining in the first half.
Southern Nazarene however answered back with five straight points cutting the Ranger lead back down to eight. Brian Free hit two foul shots pushing the Ranger lead back to eight points at the four minute mark of the first half. Southern Nazarene closed the first half on a 10-2 run to tie the game right before the halftime buzzer. After a foul shot and three jumpers Shawn Barthelemy drilled a three pointer in the closing seconds as the teams were locked at 30-30 heading into halftime.
After a defensive first half the two teams offense came out of the break quick as Visser and Tshibangu traded opening layups before the two teams then traded three pointers the Rangers coming from Jabiri Smith. Free followed with his second three pointer of the game as the three put Northwestern back in front 40-39 at the 17:43 mark of the second half.
The two teams traded baskets as Chance Love hit a shot taking a 47-46 lead. Free continued to push the pace for the Rangers off a McDowell rebound running up the floor drilling another three pointer as Northwestern took a 50-46 lead with 13:40 left to go. Southern Nazarene answered with a 7-0 run as Visser continued a strong second half as he pushed the Crimson Storm in the lead 53-52 with 9:49 left in the game.
Camron McDowell answered though, ending the Crimson Storm run with a three pointer to tie the score back at 55-55 right before the under eight media timeout. With 5:00 minutes left to play the score was tied at 60-60 as Tshibangu tied the game with a dunk. With the score tied 64-64 the Rangers made their run late in the second half. Two straight dunks by Tshibangu and a dunk by Larry White had Northwestern back in front 68-64.
White gave the Rangers a two possession lead following a dunk before SNU cut the deficit back to three with a minute left. Northwestern closed the game out with eight straight foul shots to take a 82-74 lead which would close out the victory over the Crimson Storm with an eight point victory.
Northwestern will be on the road Thursday at Cameron before returning home on Saturday at Southeastern to resume conference play.
