Ranger basketball lost two games last week to Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist, as the race for a playoff spot in the GAC Championship heats up.
The Rangers traveled to Arkadelphia, Arkansas, to face the two local teams. Henderson State was their first opponent on Thursday, then they faced Ouachita Baptist on Saturday. The Rangers lost both games, putting them in a tough spot in the standings.
The first half against Henderson State was close, as the Rangers were outscored by just one point, 27-28. To start the half, neither team got too far from the other. From the first tip to the 11th minute, neither team was up by more than two.
At the midway mark of the half, the Reddies started giving themselves a lead, but not much of one. With nine minutes left in the half, they were up by six. The Rangers were able to battle back quickly, and two minutes later, they were up by four. The Rangers were able to increase their lead over Henderson over the next three minutes, but the Reddies turned it around and pulled them right back. In just two minutes, Henderson scored eight points to reel the Rangers in and take the lead by one to end the half.
To start the second half, the Rangers took the lead right back. Northwestern earned a five-point lead. Then, Henderson fought back and shrank the Rangers’ lead and earned themselves their own two-possession lead. The Reddies kept their lead and eventually went on a run, which the Rangers could not recover from. Henderson State won the game 75-66.
Keyondre Young had the most points for the Rangers with 19. Max Alexander was a close second with 18. Robbie Armbrester had the most rebounds with nine and had three steals.
The second game of the week against Ouachita Baptist started amazingly for the Rangers. They scored seven straight without an answer. Four minutes in, the Tigers finally responded, making the game 7-2. The Rangers were able to increase their lead over the Tigers as the first half continued. At the halfway mark, Northwestern was up by nine. With eight minutes left in the half, the Rangers were up by 13. The Tigers cut the Rangers’ lead down to the single digits by the time the clock stopped, ending the first half 40-34 with the Rangers up by six.
The Rangers kept their lead throughout the start of the second half, but by the halfway mark, Ouachita cut them down and shrunk their lead to just one. Northwestern was able to increase their lead once again, eventually having a nine-point lead with seven minutes left to play. In just two minutes, the Tigers reeled them in and took the lead. Ouachita didn’t look back and earned themselves a multi-possession lead over the Rangers with just minutes to play. The Tigers held on and won the game 73-81.
Alexander led the Rangers in scoring with 25 points. Young had 19 points and nine rebounds. Kenny Burns III had three steals and seven rebounds.
The Rangers now sit sixth in the GAC standings. The Rangers are tied with SWOSU, whom the Rangers face next. East Central University sits above NWOSU with two more overall wins, but the Tigers have the same conference record.
The next two games for Northwestern are against SWOSU on Thursday and ECU on Saturday. These two games have a lot of importance when looking at the GAC standings.
Alexander leads the GAC in scoring. He has 479 points scored this season so far. The nearest player is one from Oklahoma Baptist who is 50 points back from Alexander. Armbrester is 10th with 265 points and third in rebounds with a total of 141 and 7.4 a game on average.