The Northwestern Oklahoma State men’s basketball team took down Southern Arkansas University in the opening round of the 2018 Great American Conference Postseason Tournament, 76-71. This advanced the Rangers to the semifinals where they competed against the Arkansas-Monticello Boll Weevils. The Rangers fell 68-58 in a hard fought game.
In the first game, Northwestern got started early establishing a 13-4 lead that was spurred by three-pointers from Halvorson and Oglesby.
The Rangers made just 5-of-11 shots to start the game, but collected three offensive rebounds that all resulted in second-chance points.
Six straight points from Minor extended the lead to double-digits at 23-11 as the Rangers continued to keep the Muleriders off balance on the offensive side of the ball. Southern Arkansas hit just six of their first 17 shots and were unable to connect on a three-point basket until the 6:45 mark of the opening half.
The Muleriders used that three-point make to generate an 8-0 run leading up to the 6:10 mark that narrowed the margin down to just four at 23-19.Halvorson and Oglesby connected on their second back-to-back three point conversion stretch of the opening half to quickly extend the lead back out to 10 just two minutes later at 29-19.
A 10-4 run during the final five minutes of the first half in favor of the Muleriders brought the halftime score to 33-32.
A bucket just a few seconds into the second half gave Southern Arkansas their first lead of the contest at 34-33. Both teams continued to battle throughout a high-paced start to the second half of action before four consecutive points from Cedric Collinge gave the Rangers a slight 41-40 advantage with 14:46 remaining in the game.
The Rangers extended their lead to seven thanks to a Green three-pointer that put Northwestern ahead 55-48 with 10:14 remaining in the game.
Southern Arkansas was able to keep the game close, getting the advantage back to just two at 55-53, before consecutive lay-ups from Northwestern brought the score to 59-53 with 7:15 remaining in the game. A quick Halvorson three continued to build the Ranger momentum as they finally began to pull away from Southern Arkansas and brought the advantage to nine at 64-55 with 5:07 remaining on the clock.
Green once again came through in the spotlight for the Rangers and completed a steal-and-score to continue to build the advantage to 70-59 with 2:28 remaining.
Southern Arkansas answered that run from the Rangers with seven consecutive points to narrow the lead to just four with 1:30 remaining on the clock.
Collinge connected on a crucial tip-in to end the Northwestern scoring draught and make the score 72-66 with under a minute to go. Minor made the hustle play of the night after missing both free throw attempts with 41 seconds remaining on the clock and secured his own offensive rebound to set-up Oglesby with the opportunity to draw contact and hit both free throws to effectively end the Muleriders chance at getting back into the game with the score at 74-67.
Coming into the semi finals, the Rangers were ranked 8th overall in the Central Region.
The semi-final game on the men’s side started out as a good one and it remained that way throughout the first 20 minutes of play. It was a battle for advantage early on, and UAM gained it first, going on a huge 11-0 run to make their lead 20-10.
The run was immediately followed up by a large Ranger comeback as well, of seven straight points, bringing it back to a three-point game at 20-17.
Both teams started to lock down on defense after the onslaught of scoring on both ends of the court as each squad went dry for nearly three minutes.
When the scoring started to pick up again, it was a battle throughout the rest of the half, but the Weevils never relinquished their lead over the designated home team.
Northwestern was only allowed the lead twice in the entirety of the first period of play and it was at 7-5 and 10-9.
The closest the Rangers would get in the final minutes of the half was two, but the Weevils were able to push it back to six, which is where it would stay, 37-31.
Once again in the second period, the Boll Weevils started out hot, going up by 11 right out of the gates, but a 6-0 run, fueled by Andres made it five again in a short amount of time.
Andres came out with an agenda in the second half as he was quickly to 16 points and had it by the nine minute mark and it was a big part of the Rangers getting back into the contest.
No matter how close the home team would get, the Weevils would step right back on the pedal and push it back to 10.
For the better part of five minutes in the final period of play, Monticello and Northwestern played some cat and mouse, where neither team was willing to give up a bucket without the other getting one as well.
Northwestern got it back to within five on three separate occasions and made it a three-point game with 2:33 left in the matchup, but that would be as close as they could get as it would finish out as a 10-point deficit for the Rangers.
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