Alva Review-Courier -

DURANT, Okla. – The Northwestern Oklahoma State women's basketball team dropped their final regular season contest of the year to Southeastern Oklahoma State by a final score of 70-53 inside Bloomer Sullivan Arena.

That loss will officially put an end to the season for the Lady Rangers as they will not qualify for the 2018 Great American Conference Postseason Tournament. Northwestern faced a must-win situation as a win over Southeastern would have qualified the Lady Rangers for the tournament, but a poor shooting performance from the field in the second half of action ultimately proved to be the deciding factor in the game.

Despite trailing Southeastern by just four at the half, the Lady Rangers made just 8-of-31 shots from the field in the second half and were outscored in the half by a total of 37-to-24. Southeastern on the other hand posted a team shooting percentage of 50 percent (24-for-48) from the field for the contest.

Junior McKenzie Billy led Northwestern in scoring with 14 points while two other Lady Rangers in Jade Jones and Jakeria Otey reached double digit scoring figures with 12 and 10 points respectively. Freshman Selena McDonald collected 10 rebounds throughout the contest while Otey and Jones both posted four assists.

Southeastern jumped out to an early 9-4 lead in the first few minutes of the first quarter, but the Lady Rangers quickly got things going on the offensive side and finished off the quarter on a 15-4 run. Billy finished off the run to take a 19-13 lead after the opening quarter of action with seven straight points.

A 10-0 run in the early portions of the second quarter put the Savage Storm back ahead at 26-23 at the 6:23 mark of the quarter, forcing a Northwestern timeout. Coming out of the timeout both teams traded baskets before a scoring draught of nearly three minutes held the score at 26-26 all the way down to the 2:09 mark.

Southeastern finished the first half on a 7-3 run to bring the score to 33-29 at the end of the first half. After hitting four-of-five attempts from behind the three-point line in the first quarter, the Lady Rangers made just one-of-six attempts in the second quarter.

A 7-0 run in favor of Southeastern leading up to the 3:57 mark of the third quarter extended their four-point halftime advantage to nine for their largest lead of the contest. The Savage Storm would continue to build their advantage heading into the final quarter of action and led 52-40 after three quarters of play.

Southeastern extended their advantage to 18 points after an 8-2 run at the beginning of the fourth quarter moved the score to 60-42 with 4:53 remaining in the game. That advantage in favor of the Savage Storm would prove too much for the Lady Rangers to overcome.

With no seniors on the roster the entire Lady Rangers squad will return for the 2018-19 season with the hopes of qualifying for the program's first ever GAC Postseason Tournament.