by Athletic Communications
Northwestern Oklahoma State University earned another win on the road against out-of-conference opponent Randall University. The Ranger offense exploded with five different players earning ten points or more to give the Black-and-Red an 81-76-win Monday evening.
NWOSU was led by Jaedon Whitfield who earned himself another double-double. He tallied a team leading 20 points and 13 rebounds and went 8-9 from the free throw line.
Parrish Hewitt who had himself a 17-point offensive game as he went 7-18 from the field with a huge reverse dunk to rally his teammates.
Other players who did well included A.J. Jones who earned 11 points and nine assists, four steals, and one block. Clive Allen and Nathan Bailey III were right there with 12 and 10 points respectively.
Bailey started the game off with an early three and turned the very beginning of the game into a point-for-point battle. After the tied score of 13-13 at the twelve-minute mark of the first half, the Rangers were able to rally together and takes a 20-16-point lead.
Whitfield found himself at the line a lot in the first half as he went 5-5 and caused Randall to take a full timeout with five minutes left to play.
A 5-2 run straight out of the Saints timeout caused Randall to take their second timeout of the game after a steal from Cole Jones and another Whitfield lay-up extended the Rangers lead 32-23. NWOSU finished the first half with a 43-33 lead.
Northwestern continued to push the Saints as they took their biggest lead of the night in the second half of the game.
Right when the Saints begin to rally back a steal from Bailey and a reverse dunk from Hewitt gave NWOSU the spark that they needed to take the lead 62-53.
However, the Saints refused to give up and came flying back to within two points at 67-65 with only seven minutes left to play. From this point on it was back-and-forth as the Rangers began to pull away the Saints rallied and came flying back.
A timeout from Head Coach Vinay Patel after a made lay-up from Whitfield allowed NWOSU to go over their defense in order to hold off the saints as the score was only 76-72 with two minutes left in the game.
Northwestern held out and took the game 81-76 to take their third win of the season.
The Rangers are scheduled to play another Great American Conference opponent Saturday evening against Southeastern University at 3:00 p.m. in Percefull Fieldhouse. They follow the Lady Rangers game that begins at 1:00 p.m.