By Jacob Ervin, Senior Reporter
The Northwestern Oklahoma State men’s basketball team lost their final game of the season Saturday despite a historic performance by Malik Parsons.
The team faced off against Southeastern at Percefull Fieldhouse in a tightly contested game. The Rangers tied the game late thanks to a layup from Parsons, but a late field goal by Jett Sternberger for the Savage Storm with 0.3 seconds left sealed the game.
The 95-93 loss eliminated the Northwestern from playoff contention and moved their record to 11-15 on the season and 7-15 in conference play.
In order to make the playoffs for the Great American Conference, the Rangers needed not only to win the game, but also required Ouachita Baptist and Southwestern to lose their weekend matchups.
While the results may have been disappointing for members Northwestern, it was still a historic game for the Rangers.
Parsons scored 45 points in his final game as a Ranger which broke the record for most points in a single game for a Ranger player that was previously 41 points and set in 1993 by Gaylon Nickerson.
The game also served as senior night for the Rangers to honor their three graduating players: Parsons, Jason Douglas-Stanley and Eric Hancik.
Chance Love, who had 4 points, 8 rebounds and 1 assist in the Rangers’ final game, expects the team to improve over the offseason.
“I feel like we had a tough year, but we got some things we can build on and we got a lot of players who are returning so we know the stuff we got to do differently,” Love said.
He explained that the team had 13 games this season that were decided by one possession and they usually did not end up going their way, but if they are able to improve some details they will be able to pull out more of those close games next season.
“Every possession matters, especially in conference play every possession matters, and we have to feel like we’re just going to fine tune the details and then hopefully we can come out better and come out with a better outcome next year,” he said.
The Northwestern men’s basketball team is expected to have the majority of their roster return for their next season and expectations will be high for the team to make it to the GAC playoffs.