Alva Review-Courier -

STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Northwestern Oklahoma State University faced a tough out-of-conference match-up on the Wednesday before the university’s Thanksgiving break. Tarleton State University was a great opponent for the Rangers to face early in the season and the Black and Red kept up until the very end of the game. The Texans took the game with a score of 63-71 and improved their record to 4-3, 0-1 in the Lone Star conference. NWOSU dropped their record to 1-5, 0-2 in the Great American Conference.

The Ranger offense was led by two transfers in Nathan Bailey and Clive Allen who both posted double digits in points with 15 and 12 respectively. Bailey continued to play well after he earned a season high 19 points in the last match. Bailey is now averaging 10 points a game with a field goal percentage of 40% for the season. He also led the team with six rebounds. Allen went 2-4 from beyond the arc with three rebounds of his own and a team high four assists.

The Rangers played well in the first half of the game with a 40% three-point percentage compared to Tarleton's 16%. Northwestern was able to tie the score 19-19 at the 11-minute mark, but the Texans answered with a 9-0 run and took their largest lead of the half. NWOSU came raging back with three pointers from Bailey and Cole Jones.

With only a minute left in the half Jones it a host deep from beyond the arc to pull within one. Bailey earned 10 of his 16 in the first half alone to keep the Rangers within three as they headed into the half with a score of 31-34.

Both the Rangers and the Texans started the half with their own double-digit runs. An immediate three from Bailey tied the score 34-34 and then Tarleton State went on a 12-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game 34-46. NWOSU answered with a ten-point run of their own that started with a rallying lay-up-and-one from Jack Peck. Returner Bryshon Bryant added two lay-ups and the score sat at 44-46 with 13 minutes left in the game.

Five straight lay-ups came from the Texans to push their lead to 57-44 with ten minutes left in the half. A final run from the Rangers with back-to-back threes from Parrish Hewitt got the Black and Red to within one but that was all they could muster. Tarleton State pulled away in the final minutes to take the game 63-71.

The Ranger bench show great improvement with 21 points to Tarleton State's 12. Red-shirt junior Peck and sophomore Cole Jones had 8 and 9 points respectively. Tarleton took the cake in fast break points with 16 to the Rangers’ six.