ALVA, Okla.– Northwestern Oklahoma State University Rangers showed a team-mentality Saturday afternoon as they faced-off against Great American Conference opponent East Central. The Red and Black showed extreme tenacity as they shut down a team that had yet to be defeated at home. NWOSU shared the ball well with 11 threes from six different Rangers, nine in the first half alone and took the lead 38-28. Northwestern settled in the second half and led for as many as 20 points and took the game with a final score of 84-76.

Northwestern’s offense was led by Parrish Hewitt who tallied 18 points and four rebounds while going 8-15 from the field. Other stand-out Rangers included Jaedon Whitfield and Nathan Bailey who had 16 and 14 points each. Whitfield went 5-8 from the field and led the team with seven rebounds. Bailey went three-for-three from deep and had six rebounds of his own.

The Rangers and the Tigers began the first half with a back-and-forth battle and five different lead changes within the first six minutes of play. After a tied score of 15-15 with 11 minutes left in the half it seemed like East Central was about to pull away until back-to-back threes from the NWOSU gave them a 24-21 lead. From this point on the Red and Black took control of the game and took a ten-point lead headed into half with a 38-28 score.

Northwestern tallied nine threes compared to East Central, who only had two. The biggest advantage that the Rangers had was creating 11 turnovers from the ECU offense.

The Red and Black picked up exactly where they left off with three straight jumpers to continue their momentum. Northwestern was able to hold the lead for almost 30 minutes and the entire second half where they led for a high of 20 points with a score of 76-56 at the three minute-mark. The Tigers refused to fold, however, and hit five threes within the last two minutes of the game to cut the lead back down to single digits. NWOSU made 14 of their 19 free throws to keep the lead and take the game with a final score of 84-76.

Northwestern led the Tigers in multiple categories and improved on multiple different things including spreading the scoring out between multiple Rangers. There were 12 assists for NWOSU and led in points off turnovers with 24 to the Tigers 14. From the stat comes the turnover number and the Red and Black created 18 turnovers from ECU’s offense. Northwestern also led with points from the bench with 29 to East Central’s 21. The Tigers led Northwestern in fastbreak points with 22 to NWOSU’s eight.

The Rangers headed back to Alva to face GAC rival Southwestern Oklahoma State University on Saturday for their second face-off of the season, first in Percefull Fieldhouse.