By OAKLEE FIELDER
Sports Editor
The women’s basketball team had two games last week. Their away game was first and it was against the SWOSU Bulldogs on February 13 in Weatherford.
NWOSU 61-SWOSU 78
The game started off being down by ten for the Lady Rangers, and they stayed down hard. The Bulldogs put on a showing against the Lady Rangers in the opening quarter. Halfway through the first quarter, SWOSU was up by sixteen 5-21. With four minutes left in the quarter, Carly Craig hit a three pointer to shrink the lead to thirteen. At the end of the first quarter, it was apparent who had the upper hand in this game as the score was 8-29 SWOSU.
The second quarter opened with a three pointer by Carly Craig. The Bulldogs seemed to have taken that personally and went on an eleven-point run to make the difference twenty-nine. Craig hit another three pointer to shrink the lead to twenty-six but the two teams started to go back and forth. With one minute left in the half, Craig hit a field goal and then a three pointer in an attempt to generate momentum. With four seconds left, the Bulldogs responded with a three pointer to make the game at the half 25-50.
The third quarter started off well for the Lady Rangers, and they got five points on the Bulldogs with Jaida Shipp scoring three free throws. SWOSU took the ball and ran with the lead again making the difference twenty-seven. The Lady Rangers took it right back and shrunk it down to seventeen by the end of the third quarter. With the score 46-63 and only ten minutes left the Lady Rangers had a lot of work to do if they were going to be able to bring home the win.
The fourth quarter opened up with the Bulldogs scoring again, and getting their lead to the mid-twenties for most of the final quarter. The Lady Rangers turned it around with four minutes remaining and made an effort to bring the difference down, and that they did. They were able to bring the Bulldogs’ lead down to fifteen before the Bulldogs scored two more points. The Lady Rangers had a turnover and the Bulldogs waited the clock out to take the win 61-78. The Lady Rangers’ next game was at home against the Oklahoma Baptist Bison.
OBU 67-NWOSU 51
The game started with eight straight points for the Bison. After that the two teams went back and forth for a while until the Bison took the lead again. They increased their lead to thirteen, but a layup from Kira Bass brought it back down to eleven. The second quarter started off in a back and forth for the Bison and Lady Rangers. The Bisons’ lead had shrunk to seven after two free throws by Payton Jones. Later on, it was shrunk to just six after a three pointer by Carly Craig. The Bison took their large lead back and made it a twelve-point game with twenty-two seconds left in the half. Carly Craig scored two free throws to bring it down to just ten.
The third half opened with four points for the Bison, but the Lady Rangers fought back and brought the difference down to seven. The Lady Rangers continued to shrink the Bisons’ lead and it got down to just four after a three pointer by Craig. The two teams traded free throws and it was a four-point game entering the final quarter.
The Bison decided to not make it a close game at the start of the quarter, and made their lead twelve. The Lady Rangers woke up with half of the final quarter left, and brought the difference to eight. OBU denied the home team the chance to win and created a big gap between them and the Lady Rangers of fourteen. With thirty seconds left, the Bison scored a field goal to extend their lead to sixteen and that was the end of the game 67-51. The Lady Rangers now sit at sixth in the GAC standings, below SWOSU and above Southern Arkansas, who is their next opponent.