SEARCY, Arkansas – The Northwestern Oklahoma State women’s basketball team (0-2, 0-0 Great American Conference) took their third loss on the road against a tough Harding University Bison (2-0, 0-0 GAC) on Thursday night.

The Bison were first on the board within the starting minute of the game as Caroline Hogue gave Harding two points off a layup. That started the Bison on a 14-3 run to give them an 11-point lead over the Rangers before Northwestern’s Kalea King answered with a layup to keep that layup under double digits.

The Rangers had back-to-back threes from King and Jaylan Robinson, but a 10-0 run from Harding increased the Bison’s lead to 17 with 2:28 left in the first.

Fairview native Taylor Cell ended that run with a trey, but Harding closed the game out to lead the Rangers 14-35 going into the second quarter.

It was a slow start to the second as neither team scored until Harding’s A’ndrea Haney hit a bump underneath to put the score 14-37 two minutes into the period.

King answered back for the Rangers as she drew the foul and drained both foul shots to put the lead back at a 21-point deficit in Harding’s favor.

Northwestern continued to have trouble to slow the Bison’s offense as Harding led by as much as 32 points going into halftime with the score at 22-54.

The Rangers went scoreless the first two minutes of the second-half before Jonae Isaac hit a jumper to put the score a 24-58.

Despite the Rangers fighting back, Harding controlled the pace of the game for the rest of the night getting as much as a 43-point lead before closing out the game. The Rangers took their third loss of the season 56-89.

Stats

King was the only Ranger to hit double digits with 16, tying with Harding’s Falan Miller and Sydnie Jones with the game-high. Isaac had the second team-high with nine points to go with her nine rebounds with Kori Barrios following closely with eight points and eight rebounds. Other contributors for the Rangers were Destinee Robinson (6 points, 4 rebounds), Forrell (4 points, 2 assists), J. Robinson (3 points), Ashli Robinson (3 points, 1 rebound), Beechum (3 points), Cell (3 points, 1 assist) and McKenzie Billy (1 point, 2 assists).

The Rangers will continue their road trip to Russellville, Arkansas, to face-off with Arkansas Tech with tip off at 1 p.m. on Saturday.