Women push record to 15-1
By KEN IRVING
Student Reporter
The Lady Rangers racked up two wins last week at home, pushing their overall record to 15-1 (7-1 conference) and stepping from 12th to 10th place on the NCAA Division II Coaches poll posted Monday.
NWOSU Lady Rangers beat Ouachita Baptist Tigers, 67-49 on Jan. 11 and then toppled Henderson State 64-55 last Saturday. The Rangers are in Arkansas this week to play Arkansas Tech Thursday and Harding on Saturday.
NWOSU 67, Ouachita 49
Numerous students were in attendance Jan. 11, along with the band, and it seemed like the Lady Rangers fed off the electric energy immediately as they took a 9-0 lead to start the game.
Senior Faith Simpson, who has been named GAC player of the week three times already this season, scored three baskets in a row. Junior Carly Craig fired back-to-back 3-pointers at the buzzer to close out the first quarter. Lady Rangers were up 19-6.
Coming out of the break, Craig didn’t miss a beat as she dribbled down the court through multiple defenders, rose over and hit a midway jumper. She’s scored 8 straight points for the Lady Rangers. The Tigers called timeout with the Lady Rangers up 23-9.
Coming out of the timeout, Simpson powered her way through the Tiger defense, scoring 17 points in the first half. She was 100% from the paint. NWOSU went into halftime up 37-11.
As the third quarter began, Craig scored 7 straight points, forcing the Tigers to call timeout. Then junior Camille Thomas forced her way into the paint, scoring 8 points for the Lady Rangers.
As the third quarter ended, sophomore Talayah Thomas extended the lead to 33.
The Tigers went on a 4-11 run but couldn’t pull it out.
Top scorers: Faith Simpson, 17 points; Carly Craig, 15 points; Camille Thomas, 10 points.
NWOSU 64, Henderson 55
The Lady Rangers found themselves in a dog fight Saturday against the 8-5 (4-3) Henderson State Lady Reddies.
From the jump it was obvious that the Lady Reddies were not fearful of the Rangers as they found themselves ahead of the Rangers 20-8 at the end of the first quarter.
Junior Syncere Harrod kicked off the second quarter by knocking down a pair of free throws. The Lady Rangers continued to force the ball into the paint as they got foul calls.
At the 5:25 mark midway through the second quarter, the Lady Rangers were within 6 after a heavily contested layup by Thomas. Henderson State responded to go back up 6.
Craig fired a 3-pointer and Camille Thomas shot a post-up fadeaway to go into the half down 26-30.
In the third quarter the Lady Rangers slowly began to build momentum. Simpson hit two free throws to cut the deficit to two points, but Henderson State would not be put down to sleep this easily.
The Lady Reddies scored back-to-back buckets, including a difficult layup attempt that silenced the crowd.
As the quarter wound down, junior Camille Thomas got a steal, passed to Craig, who turned it to senior Nikya Orange who scored. This fast break got the Lady Rangers within 2, but the Lady Reddies would once again stop the bleeding by going on their own run to close the quarter.
The score was 36-41 to start the fourth quarter.
The Lady Reddies knocked down a three to start the fourth quarter, but the Lady Rangers came firing like ballistic missiles. Senior Paige Scott’s 3-pointer cut the deficit down to 1.
Camille Thomas scored a layup off the glass to give the Lady Rangers their first lead of the game with 6:57 left to go.
Once the Lady Rangers took control of the lead, they never looked back and went for the win.
Top scorers: Faith Simpson, 29 point, 9 rebounds; Camille Thomas, 16 points, 7 rebounds; Syncere Harrod, 12 points; Carly Craig, 10 points
