By OAKLEE FIELDER
Sports Editor
The Lady Rangers’ basketball team had two away games last week. One against the Harding Bison, and one against the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns.
Harding 61-NWOSU 63
The Lady Rangers started off against the Harding Bison. The beginning of first quarter was all about the Bison. Within the first minute, Harding had a 0-5 lead against the Lady Rangers. The Lady Rangers woke up and started scoring.
The game continued and the first quarter became quarter for the Bison. They kept the lead throughout the quarter, although the Lady Rangers shrunk that lead down to two by the time the quarter ended. The second quarter was more for the Lady Rangers. The two teams were able to keep the difference in the points less than 5 the whole quarter.
The Lady Rangers were never down more than four. The Bison and Lady Rangers traded the lead a couple times throughout the second quarter, although the Bison held the lead through most of the quarter. In the final minute in the first half, the Lady Rangers went on a four-point run to tie the game with 7 seconds left with a layup from Payton Jones.
The third quarter was almost a mirror image of the first. The Bison took the lead and walked away with it for a while. Until in the fifth minute, Lily Mahy tied the game with a three pointer. Harding defended against the Rangers and extended their lead once again to five. The Lady Rangers did fight back but Harding kept the difference at five.
The fourth quarter would have to be a hard fought one for whoever the winner would turn out to be. Harding had started to generate a bit of momentum, but the Lady Rangers fought hard and took the lead with three minutes left in the game. The Lady Rangers went on a run to extend the lead to 4. With 55 seconds left, the Bison made a layup and then scored two free throws to tie the game at 61-61.
10 seconds left in the game, Carly Craig ran down the court and attempted a layup but missed.
Jaida Shipp grabbed the ball and scored with 2 seconds left to seal the game and take the win against Harding.
NWOSU 51-ART 64
The Lady Rangers’ next stop was against the Arkansas Tech Golden Suns. The first quarter was a low scoring start to the game. The Golden Suns started off with a good-sized lead that was made with ten points in the first 4 minutes. The Lady Rangers fought hard and shrank it to three. With a score of 9-12, the next 3 minutes of the first quarter stayed the exact same.
The second quarter was not very welcoming to the Lady Rangers. Arkansas Tech extended their three-point lead to ten, and then fourteen, and then eighteen. The Lady Rangers were not able to get into a steady rhythm to finish off the first half. The Golden Suns kept the lead in the teens and the second quarter finished 19-34. With a good-sized lead, and the home court advantage, Arkansas Tech went into the second half rolling and did not stop for anything. The Lady Rangers struggled to keep up with the Golden Suns once again in the third quarter. Arkansas Tech continued their momentum and extended their lead further to twenty-one and then to twenty-three.
The Lady Rangers, in an attempt to stop the bleeding, cur the score down to eighteen at the end of the quarter. The Lady Rangers entered the final quarter of the game down by a lot and having lots of work to do. They started the quarter off on the right foot and started shrinking the Golden Sun’s lead. They got the lead down to ten, with over half of the final quarter left.
The Golden Suns had to find a way to stop the Lady Rangers, and they found it.
The Lady Rangers stalled out with 5 min to go, and Arkansas Tech kept their lead above ten. The game ended with a three-pointer by Lily Mahy for NWOSU. The game ended 51-64 with an Arkansas Tech win.
NWOSU women’s basketball continues to sit at fifth place in the GAC standings with a 7-7 record.