by Ashley Watts, Sports Editor
The Lady Rangers competed against Harding and Arkansas Tech this past weekend, but unfortunately came out winless on both games.
On Thursday the Rangers traveled to Searcy, Arkansas to play Harding University.
The Lady Rangers were ready to go up against the Lady Bisons of Harding University. Northwestern looked to get their first ever victory not only in Searcy but also against Harding in general.
Harding was able to take control right before halftime in this game and never lost control as they led through the whole second half, finishing off with an 85-61 victory.
This game looked to be a battle in the early going after a great first quarter followed by a tremendous start to the second had the game tied at 25 with 4:21 left in the first half. Harding would go on an 11-4 run to close the second quarter to open up a 36-29 lead which was never lost and extend to 24-point win.
Northwestern won points in the paint 22-18, the Lady Rangers got beat in bench points 27-17 and the Lady Bisons took advantage of their strong rebounding teams grabbing 19 offensive rebounds and winning the rebounding margin 45-27 leading to a 22-7 advantage in second chance points.
The Lady Bisons’ run late in the half would give them a 36-29 advantage at halftime over the Lady Rangers.
Their lead would get to as many as 13 in the quarter and would finish at 12 on a Brown layup for Northwestern as the Lady Bisons’ led 60-48 after three quarters played. In the opening quarter of the second half Northwestern shot 6-of-15 and 3-of-6 from three.
The fourth quarter was mainly Harding as Northwestern could not find any sort of rhythm as Harding quickly got the lead to 15 in the quarter.
Eventually they would open up that 20-point lead at the 3:24 mark left in the game and reached the peak which was at 25-point lead for Harding and would go on to win in Searcy. The lead would finish out being a 24-point victory.
Harding would win this one 85-61 over Northwestern, as Harding improves to 15-0 against Northwestern all time.
After playing Harding the Lady Rangers traveled to Russelville to take on Arkansas Tech. This game was also a loss for the Lady Rangers as they came up short, 70-51.
The Lady Rangers had two scorers in double figures in Kalea King and Kenzi Lamer who finish the game with 13 points each on 4-of-10 shooting and 5-for-15 respectively. Lamer and Kyleigh Leverich combine for four rebounds each to lead the team. Bailey Brown led the team with two assists on the night.
Arkansas Tech took control of the game early in the first quarter and never looked back.
The lady Rangers dropped this game in a hard tough fought battle.
The Lady Rangers would finish the game 18-of-58 for 31% from the field, 5-of-25 from three, and 10-14 from the foul line. The game had five lead changes along with three ties.
The loss drops Northwestern’s record on the year to 9-9 and 5-7 in Great American Conference play. The Lady Rangers will be home for a little while now after this road trip with three straight home games which include, Arkansas-Monticello, Southern Arkansas, and finishing the home stand with Southern Nazarene.