SEARCY, ARK. - The Northwestern Oklahoma State men's basketball team came up just short in their comeback bid falling to Harding Saturday night 66-53, despite Max Alexander recording his fourth 20-plus point performance of the season.
The Rangers jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead over the Bisons, however the lead was quickly erased as the two sides went back and forth through the first four minutes of action and found themselves locked in a 6-6 draw at the first media timeout. Neither side could pull away from the other, as the teams found themselves tied up again at the under 12 media time out.
Harding came out of the media timeout hot, using an 11-6 run to get out in front of Northwestern 21-16 by way of the three ball. The Rangers clawed their way back to narrow the gap to four points 22-18 at the under eight minute media timeout. Harding started to separate again, but Northwestern surged back but could only get within four at 27-23 before the final media time out of the half. The Bisons went on a 10-2 run to take a 12 point lead with seconds left in the half. Alexander knocked down a late three to bring the lead down to nine at 37-28 going into halftime.
The Rangers outscored the Bisons in the first four minutes of the second half of play, but still found themselves down at the first media timeout 40-32. Defensively, Northwestern held Harding scoreless for just under four minutes of the ball game. Mikey Hawkins helped cut Harding's lead to five with a three point bucket at the 14:39 mark.
Harding got it back up to an eight point lead, but the Rangers were able to close the gap to three at 45-42 off a trey from Alexander with just over nine minutes left in the game. Harding once again pushed the lead to eight before another three pointer by Alexander to close it to five at 56-51 with just about four and a half minutes left in the game. That's as close as it would get however, as the comeback attempt came up just shy.
Northwestern will be back in action on Wednesday, December 10th at 7:30 p.m. as they travel to Durant, Oklahoma to take on Southeastern.
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