ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – The Northwestern Oklahoma State men's basketball team fell to No. 20 Ouachita Baptist, 81-73, on Saturday afternoon.

The Rangers opened the game on a 7-0 run with buckets from Kenny Burns III, Cam'ron Brown, and a three-pointer from Keyondre Young, and the offense continued to heat up as Max Alexander buried his first three followed by another triple from Young to put Northwestern up 13-6. The Ranger defense locked the Tigers down, as they only scored 13 points in the first ten minutes of the half. Northwestern continued to extend its lead on buckets from Alexander and Armbrester to go up 28-15 with 8:19 to go in the first half, but Ouachita went on an 8-0 run to trim the Ranger lead down to five. The Rangers and Tigers continued to battle for momentum in the first half, but Northwestern held the lead at halftime, 40-34.

Ouachita tried to cut into the lead early in the second half, but Armbrester led a 5-0 surge to put the Ranger lead back at eight early in the half. The Tigers went on an 8-1 run to cut the Ranger lead to one midway through the half, but Northwestern returned the favor with an 8-0 run to push the lead to 60-51. Ouachita cut the lead right back to one with an 8-0 run of its own, and eventually pushed ahead to take the lead, 66-61, with four minutes to go. Alexander drew fouls on back-to-back drives, and made three free throws to make it a two-point game before Ouachita made another push to go up by seven with one minute left in the game. Alexander drained a three to cut the lead down to four, put Ouachita continued to pull away to beat the Rangers, 81-73.

Alexander led the Rangers in scoring with 25 points, while Young led in rebounds with nine.

The Rangers will be back in action on February 12, when they travel to Weatherford to take on Southwestern Oklahoma State University at 7:30 p.m.

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