By RYAN SHUMAKER
Sports Editor
Northwestern’s men’s basketball team qualified for the Great American Conference tournament, despite dropping both road contests to finish out the year.
The men beat out Southeastern Oklahoma State University in a host of tie breakers to qualify as the eighth seed. This means they will take on Harding University on March 3 at 5:45, in Bartlesville, Okla. The Rangers have dropped both contests against Harding 84-64 and 82-63.
The Rangers qualified for the tournament despite dropping four straight conference games to end the season, including the final two games on the road against Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University.
Against Ouachita Baptist on Thursday, the Rangers put up a valiant effort against the conference’s number one seed, only to eventually lose in the final minutes of the game 95-88. The Rangers were unable to hold onto a 44-40 halftime lead, despite 27 points from junior Deiondray Martin and 23 points from junior Adrian Motley.
The Tigers came out firing in the second half and built an 11 point lead with just over 10 minutes left in the ballgame. The Rangers responded with a 10-0 run to cut the lead to one, but a lay-up with a minute left and missed three-point bucket from Motley lead to the Rangers loss.
On Saturday evening, the Rangers dropped their final regular season contest of the year 86-77 to Henderson State University. The Reddies shot nearly 50 percent from the field and got out in front of the Rangers early and never looked back.
Freshman Zach Dumas lead the way for the Rangers and scoring with 22 points while Motley finished with a double-double grabbing 13 rebounds to go along with 20 points. Martin had another offensive explosion for the Rangers despite only playing 22 minutes. He finished with 16 points which included a four for six effort from the three point line.
The Rangers finished the year with a record of 9-17(9-13 GAC.) Motley led the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 18 points and eight rebounds on the year.
On the women’s side, they also lost both contests to finish out the year without winning a conference game. On Thursday they lost to Ouachita Baptist University 86-76, despite 29 points from post Kamera Bozeman. On Saturday they dropped their last contest of the year 76-65 to Henderson State University. Bozeman once again led the Rangers with 23 points.
The Black-and-Red finished the season with a record of 2-22(0-22 GAC.) Bozeman led the team in scoring and rebounding with 13.5 points and 6.6 rebounds.