King enters elite 1,000 point club; Lady Rangers topple SNU, 56-55
February 10, 2019
BETHANY, Okla. – On an historic night inside the Sawyer Center on the campus of Southern Nazarene, Northwestern Oklahoma State University women’s basketball earned their fourth straight road victory, 56-55, in the final minute of play over SNU.
Northwestern improved its record to 9-13 overall this season and 6-9 in Great American Conference play. The Lady Rangers fourth road win in as many games is the first time a Northwestern women’s basketball team has achieved the feat since the 2001-02 season.
While all wins during conference action are important, the Lady Rangers enter each contest in a must win scenario. Prior to Thursday’s game, Northwestern was sitting in a three-way tie for seventh with Oklahoma Baptist and Arkansas Tech. Each team won Thursday evening to keep the seventh and eighth tournament spots locked in a dead heat.
SNU was sitting in second place in the GAC entering playing Thursday evening. The victory also clinched the first regular season sweep of the Crimson Storm since the 2014-15 season.
Northwestern looks to continue its current three-game win streak Saturday afternoon at 1p.m. when East Central visits Percefull Fieldhouse on Hall of Fame day in Alva. Current members of the Northwestern Sports Hall of Fame will be recognized at halftime of the women’s game, and the induction of the 2019 class will take place at halftime of the men’s contest.
Early in the second quarter, redshirt junior Kalea King put her name in the Northwestern record books as she knocked down a jumper at the free-throw line to become the 12th player in program history to eclipse the 1000-point mark in a Northwestern uniform. King finished the game with 13 points to give her 1,009 career points, passing Brittany McBride for 11th all-time.
Northwestern had a 45-43 lead entering the fourth quarter Thursday night, but the Crimson Storm scored seven straight. Following a King free-throw, Jakeria Otey scored five straight, including a three-pointer and a layup, to give the Lady Rangers the lead. It was short lived, however, as the home team quickly hit a three on their end of the floor.
The Crimson Storm had a three-point lead with less than two minutes to go before King was able to get to the rim for a layup to cut the difference to one. Then, with time running down on the shot clock in the final minute, Jade Jones poked the ball away from Madeline Schroepfer. King finished the play with a fastbreak layup with 12 seconds remaining to give the Lady Rangers the 56-55 lead.
After missing a basket with two-seconds to go, SNU retained the ball when it went out of bounce on the rebound. On the inbound, Otey picked off the ball just before the buzzer sounded to seal the victory.
Despite the close win, it looked like the game would be all Southern Nazarene in the second quarter. The Lady Rangers held on to an early lead, but the home team started draining threes as the first came to a close and into the second, eventually taking a 14-point lead with just under seven minutes to go in the first half.
However, Bailey Brown and the Lady Rangers chipped away at the lead to make it 29-25 heading into the break. Brown had eight points in the final seven minutes of the second quarter to lead the Lady Rangers on a 12-2 run.
Brown finished the night with a game high 18 points and Otey had 12 points to go along with King’s final output.
Northwestern dominated the game in the paint as the Lady Rangers outscored the Crimson Storm 26-16 down low. The Lady Rangers held on to a 40-33 advantage on the board, led by Brown with eight rebounds and King and Jones had six rebounds each.
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